Win or Die
by The Corrupted Typer
Summary: She has escaped. After many long and painful years of being their experiment, she has escaped. She knows her path to freedom will be bloody, but she doesn't care. She will do anything to get her freedom. She will destroy anything that gets in her way, she will kill who she must, she will dodge every trick they throw at her. She will fight this battle and win, or die trying.
1. Escape

She ran, ran faster than she thought possible through one of the many forests in northrend. Her long black hair was whipping around in the wind, but she didn't care. She _had_ to get out of there, away from that place. Anywhere would have been better than where she had been. She would have chosen death over being there for a minute longer.

She heard the roar of a dragon not far behind and she quickened her pace. She couldn't be caught; they would never allow her the chance to escape again. Her legs burned and she knew she must have run a few miles in only a few minutes. She heard wings flapping up above, and she thanked herself that she had chosen to escape at night.

The trees got thicker and they covered the sky, and she had no idea where she was going. But she kept running anyway. They would be close now, extremely close, and she couldn't stop until she was sure she was far enough away.

She heard another roar, this time it was farther away, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She was out running them. But she didn't dare stop to celebrate; they would catch up with her if she did. She heard something rip and she looked down to see her dark leather pants beginning to rip from the running.

They tore even more, but she ignored it. If she had to run pant less, then fine. She would rather do that than go back to where she had been. She clutched the large tooth that hung around her neck and felt comfort. Soon she would be free, and she could live out her life, disguised as a blood elf forever if she had to.

A roar ripped through the landscape, and she began to fear that they would catch up with her again.

"No" she told herself "Not this time"

She ran even faster, if that was possible, and her muscles burned in agony. But she ignored the pain, she had learned to from the place she had been in, and kept on running. There would be a river soon, she knew, she had overheard the servants talking of one. She could hide there, in the water, until day. They would stop searching by then, they always had.

She heard another roar, this time closer, and the large beating wings of a dragon not far up above.

"_Dalgris_" she hissed quietly.

She had two choices: keep running and hope he didn't hear her, or hide.

It took her a few seconds to duck behind a bush and get as low as possible. Dalgris was a dragon, he heard everything. If she kept running, he would surely hear her eventually. She heard the wing flaps get closer and closer, and then they stopped. She was confused at first, but then she heard a huge thump in front of her.

She peered under the bush and saw four huge red dragon feet. Then she saw a snout of a red dragon drop to the ground and begin sniffing. She thought for sure that she would get caught, since Dalgris had a great sense of smell. She clung onto her necklace and began to hope that her punishment wouldn't be too harsh. The snout swept over the clearing in front of her, only to stop in front of the bush she was hiding behind.

The dragon sniffed a few times, and then it raised a hand and aimed for the bush. She closed her eyes and hoped for the best. But then, a miracle took place. She opened her eyes after hearing some strange hiss, and saw that in the clearing a skunk had come out of the woods and sprayed its stinky fumes on Dalgris.

Dalgris growled at the creature, and then snapped it up in one bite before jumping up into the air to begin the search for her.

She sighed and relief and muttered "Velathelina, you are a very lucky girl"

A shudder went up her spine. She rarely ever said her full name, she usually stuck to Vela, and whenever she said her full name it made her shudder. It was a name given to her long ago, at a time she did not want to remember.

She shook herself to get rid of the chills that had settled in and got up. There wouldn't be any more dragons coming this way for a while, and she allowed herself a sigh of relief. She turned to the direction she had been going before and began to run again. Her legs burned once again, but she wouldn't stop now that she had such a lead.

She clutched her necklace once again, and fund comfort, soon she would be free, free of her cursed past that no one would forget. She could live her life how she wanted to without anyone coming after her ever again. But first she had to get out of northrend.

She didn't know where she would go after that, she just knew that she would go. Kalimdor, perhaps, or maybe she would go to the blood elf city, silvermoon, and live out her life in blood elf form.

She had only met a blood elf once, sure he was a prisoner, but so was she, so she spoke to him on a daily basis. He had told her of silvermoon and of his people and how the lich king had attacked them and nearly wiped their race off the map.

And in return, she told him of her dark past, and how she came to be a prisoner among her own kind. He didn't treat her badly like the other mortals had; he treated her like a person, not a monster.

She remembered that his name was Kaldor. He had been imprisoned because he was snooping among there, learning the secrets of the black dragon flight. They let him live for a while, but they killed him after a while. Luckily Vela had been abducted by the red dragon flight before then, so she didn't have to see him die.

She also remembered the funny language he had taught her. She couldn't remember the name, only that it was the blood elven language. He had taught her many languages in the years they were imprisoned there, dwarven, common, darnassian, and she had taught him dragon speak.

But he couldn't say everything since some words required you to be a dragon, with a long tongue and scaly mouth.

She sighed; she missed Kaldor and his funny elven traditions. He was the reason she had chosen to be disguised as a blood elf. She remembered his funny walking and his classy manners. She just slouched all the time and ate with her mouth, not with her hands.

She thought it was awfully strange how mortals ate with tiny spears, but she guessed it was some strange custom they had created. Kaldor had laughed at her the first time he saw her eat; she ate holding the bowl with her hands and shoving her face into it.

He also taught her some of the different spells he knew, he was a mage. She couldn't tech him any dragon spells though, since all of them would be so powerful that they would kill him. When she told him this he said that he didn't mind, since he already knew a bunch of his mage spells.

Her thoughts had distracted her so much that she hadn't noticed the river until she nearly fell in it. She stopped and looked back for any signs of pursuers. There was nothing, not even a deafening roar from far off in the distance.

Vela sighed in relief. She would follow the river upstream towards one of the towns the servants had spoken of. She couldn't rest, not until she was far away from the awful place she had been kept prisoner in for so many years.

She would rest once she was in the safety of the town. There could be red dragons there in disguise, but they couldn't do anything to her out in the open. They would risk giving away their secret that one of the black dragons had survived. And they wanted Vela alive, not impaled on a spear like the rest of her kind. And they wanted to study her, learn why she was able to evade the corruption and the whispering of the old gods.

They truly believed that she knew why, and that she was keeping it a secret. But she didn't, and they wouldn't believe her when she told them that. So she had been tortured until the life was nearly drained out of her, all for a stupid secret that she didn't even know of.

She spat onto the river bank, disgusted at what they had done to her. She understood that her race was evil, but she wasn't. She was uncorrupted, yet they tortured her. For years, she lay in that cold dark room, waiting for death to claim her.

But it never did, and she was able to escape. She would be free, and she could live her life not in chains. She wouldn't be a scientist's experiment any longer. She wouldn't be poked and prodded or forced to drink appalling mixtures that smelled vile.

She smiled in the night, something she hadn't done in years. All along she thought that her only purpose in life was to be studied until she died, or until they killed her. But now, if she was successful, she would get far away from them and she would be able to live her life without anyone knowing about her secret, or her past.

Who knows, maybe she'd even fall in love with a mortal. She doubted she would have kids, though. She didn't want to unleash that kind of abomination upon the world. She knew that if she had any children they would be corrupted, just like the rest of them, even if she wasn't.

She sighed. Only one hundred years ago this would have upset her, but right now, she really didn't care. All she wanted was to live, and if she couldn't have kids, then so be it. She thought she heard something snap in the woods, and she realized that she had to get going.

She slipped into the creek and began swimming north, to where the village would be. Once she made it there, she would be okay. They would come after her, she knew that, but she would be quicker and smarter than them.

She would dodge everything they threw at her, she would kill every dragon they sent after her, and she would destroy anything that got in the way of her freedom. She would fight the battle that lay ahead, and she would win, or die trying.


	2. The journey begins

Vela had been swimming in the river for hours, and her muscles burned from the strain. But she ignored them, and kept swimming. It would be dawn soon, and then she could get out and rest. They would hunt for her again during the night, but she hoped that she was already too far away. She had actually hoped to be at the town by now, but it seemed that it was a lot farther away than the servants had led her to believe.

She was extremely hungry, and the freezing cold river water wasn't helping her move any faster. She looked up at the grayish sky. The stars were fading away, and the sun would soon rise. She didn't think there were any dragons still out looking for her, but she had to be sure. They were never out during the day, they didn't want any outsiders to see them and follow them back to their outpost. They didn't want anyone to know the true nature of the red dragon flight.

Vela knew that the mortals thought the red dragons were good, but from what she had seen, they were the worst of all the dragons. But maybe that was only one occasion, and they were generally nicer. Or maybe they just hated her because she was a black dragon, and they wanted her to suffer for all that her father had done.

And maybe they were right to want that. Vela hated her father and everything that he had done. He made her do terrible things, and he was the one who had imprisoned her in the first place. He killed her mother in order for her to be born, and the world was still suffering even though he was dead. Yes, she truly hated him.

And she was sure that he was never very fond of her. He never even told anyone that she was his daughter. He was ashamed of her because he knew that the old gods didn't control her. He had never paid any attention to his "good" child. He was only focused on destroying a world, too focused to realize that he was slowly killing himself.

But her father was dead, and all she could think was good riddance. Of course, his death only meant that people would be hunting her even more, to make sure the black dragons were extinct for good. So it seems that he left her with one final punch in the face.

And Vela didn't even care that her race was nearly extinct. She had remembered them all as selfish and greedy bastards that hated everything that lived. She hated them all, even her siblings. Most of her siblings were power hungry runts that lived only to serve their "masters", so to say.

She had never even met Onyxia, her older sister. She had always heard the mortals from her prison call her a bitch, and she believed it. Most of the female black dragons were, and Vela was glad that she wasn't. She supposed that her mother was like that as well, whoever she was.

As a welpling she used to wonder what her mother had been like, but now she really didn't want to know. She knew that what she would hear about her would be that she was cruel, or that she was crazy, or that she was power hungry. That's how all of her people were described, crazy, cruel, and greedy.

But that was true, most of the time, so Vela really didn't care if someone said it. In general, her memories of the black dragons were cruel and unpleasant. She had no friends among them, and no real family. All she could remember was harsh training and criticism for being sane.

But her training did come in handy, and she supposed that was one of the only skills she actually valued from the black dragon flight.

As she thought about her people, she began to wonder if there were any left. After her father was killed, they were left unorganized, and they were being killed off quicker than ever before. Perhaps she really was the last of her kind. And maybe that made her special. Of course, that meant that her whole race goes with her.

But she really didn't care if it did. They had a good time while they were alive, until they became corrupted. Maybe they would make a comeback, if there were even any left to come back.

But then again, that would actually be very bad. They would still be corrupted, and them making a comeback would only be worse. It would be the cataclysm all over again, and Vela did not want that. Then even more arrogant hunters would be tracking her, and she did not want to be locked up for another hundred years.

She looked out onto the horizon to the sun beginning to rise; she would be able to rest soon. She was extremely uncomfortable and very tired, and all she wanted to do was crawl onto the muddy bank and fall asleep. And she kept hitting her ears on low branches of trees, which really hurt. She still wasn't used to her blood elf disguise.

She liked being a blood elf, but she wasn't used to her size at all. Of course, she had been in the same form in her prison many times, but she still wasn't very used to it. She kept thinking that she could jump out and fly, when she couldn't. But it was much better than being a human. She thought the humans were too small and had egos much too big for their size, but that might have just been the human servants she saw in the prison.

So she tolerated being a blood elf, since there was nothing else she would rather be in mortal form. She also wasn't used to having hair. But she liked it, since scales were so rough and easily torn.

She looked up again to see the sun rising even higher. She would climb it at the next bend in the river and find a nice tree to rest under. Then she would plan out what to do once she actually got to the town. She really hadn't planned for anything, she just decided to escape and figure it out later. Besides, nothing could be worse than the dungeon, with all of its rats and no light to see.

She hated the dungeon she was kept in. she wouldn't wish such a life on her worst enemy. She always thought that her worst enemy was the red dragon flight, because of what they had done to her, and she wouldn't even do what they did to her. And that's what made her better than them, her sense of mercy. They showed her none, and so she hated them. She would have at least give them proper housing instead of a dark prison.

They had captured her from her prison far beneath the earth, and she wished they hadn't. From the second they abducted her they were nothing but cruel. She was tied up and thrown onto a red dragon's back. She nearly fell off a million times, and they were barely able to catch her before she fell to her doom. She would have preferred to be thrown in a volcano rather than have suffered in their prison for the time that she did.

They tried to force her to lay eggs, but she wouldn't let them go that far. She literally refused to be their "incubating machine". After much fighting, they gave up, and that was her one victory, until now.

She had successfully escaped from their prison, and that was something they had told her from the start to be impossible. But it was, and now they looked like fools. They allowed their prisoner to escape, and they would never get another chance to recapture her. She would go into hiding, forever. She would let no one know about her secret, and everyone would forever know her as a blood elf.

Some might be able to tell that she was different, like other dragons, but they could prove nothing unless she transformed into her dragon form. Then she would catch a lot of people's attention. She had been alive for over five hundred years, and she was quite large as a dragon. Sure, she wasn't as large as her father the destroyer, but she inherited his growth speed. She would be as big as him in a few thousand years, if she lived that long.

She looked up at the horizon and saw that the sun was now half way above the horizon. That would be enough; she could get out and rest now. She turned towards the bank of the river and began to swim towards it. She crawled out and landed on the muddy bank, too tired to go any further. Mud got stuck onto her clothes and hair, and she realized that she was exposed to anyone who happened to be flying above her.

She sighed, and with one last burst of strength she flung herself further up the bank to land under the shelter of a tall pine. She collapsed onto the ground and began to gasp for breath. She had never been more tired in her life, not even after her torture was finished in the prison. She would rest for most of the day, then she would continue swimming when night fall hit. She would have to get to the town tomorrow, because by then they would send dragon scouts out into the different areas of northrend to look for her.

If she could fly it would have been a lot easier, but then she'd have two hunters looking for her, the red dragon flight and the mortals.

She sighed; the mortals hadn't been kind to the black dragon flight in years. Vela wasn't even born in the time that they were. But she remembered some of the stories from when they were. They were all from the older black dragons. They spoke of how the mortals were kind to them since they were the dragons that protected the land and how they admired them.

Vela couldn't help but think that her father had really screwed that up. Now they were hated by almost all, and they were near extinct because of his foolishness. This made her escape even harder. She would have been out of northrend by now if she could fly, but there was no way that she would risk that.

She coughed up some water and crawled farther underneath the tree. She made herself as comfortable as she could and then closed her eyes and began to fall in to a deep trance of much needed sleep.

When Vela awoke the sun was high in the sky and she guessed that it was around noon. She felt a lot better, but she still needed a proper bed in order to really rest. She propped herself up against the trunk of the tree and yawned. Now that she was rested she realized that she was very hungry.

They fed her twice a day in the prison, so she hadn't actually worried about such things in a very long time. She grunted, and stood up. Her muscles still ached, but they felt better from the little amount of rest she got. She stretched, and then took in the details of her surroundings.

She was on the left side of the river, which was a lush pine forest. On the other side of the river there were less trees and it was mostly plain land. In the distance she saw the outline of mountains, and she realized she was getting close to the cold parts of northrend. She sighed, she hated the cold. She liked living underground near lava, like she used to. She was a black dragon, so of course she did.

She looked around and tried to think of some way to get food. Again, it would have been easier if she was in her dragon form, then she could easily kill something and eat it. But she wasn't, and she would have to find some alternative method. She couldn't eat roots, she was a carnivore. She would have to hunt or wait until she got to the village.

Her stomach growled, and she realized that waiting wasn't any option anymore. She grunted, she should have taken some food from the prison before she left.

"No" she muttered "It would have weighed me down and then I wouldn't have escaped"

She walked into the woods, but stopped when she heard the slight rip of fabric. She looked down at her pants to see that they had ripped even more. She would need get better traveling armor when she got into town. She would also need a backpack, and food. She snapped a twig under her foot and a rabbit she had been looking at ran away.

She grunted at herself. She wasn't used to hunting; she had to be more careful. She walked on, this time more careful of where she stepped, and began to look around for some type of prey. Of in the distance she saw a fat meaty vole picking at some bark. It was small, but it would do.

But now Vela needed to figure out how to catch it. She looked around for something sharp, and spotted a pointy stone. She picked it up off the ground and moved in for the kill. The vole turned around, but it was too late. She had killed it, and now she had some food. She swiftly ran back to where she had been next to the river and set her food down next to the river.

Then she realized she needed to cook it. Again, if she was a dragon, she could eat it raw, but right now she would get sick by doing that. She thought about what to do and then she remembered how some of the older dragons could breathe fire in mortal form. She hadn't breathed fire in a long time; the red dragons put pills in her food that wouldn't let her, so that she wouldn't use that to escape.

She quickly remembered how they did it and tried it out. It didn't work the first few times, but she got the hang of it and began to roast her vole. When she was finished it was burnt but it was edible, and she ate it up quickly. Now that she was rested and full, she could continue swimming. She looked up to see that the sun had begun to dip down in the sky.

She slipped into the river and began to swim again, glad that she would get a head start before night fell, and they would continue to hunt her.


	3. Daena's carriage

Vela had been swimming for a few hours, and the sun was getting ready to set. She knew she was far from the prison, but there was no sign of the village. She had been hoping to have been there by then, yet she was probably far from it. She looked up at the sky to see it begin to turn a hazy purple, and she also saw that the sun had dipped even further into the sky.

She sighed, and began to swim faster. It wasn't that hard, because there was barely any current, and the water had warmed up during the day. She also had renewed energy from the vole she had eaten earlier.

Her muscles were burning, but not as bad as they had before. She would get to the village, get supplies, and then figure out where she would go. She still had no idea; she just planned to get out of Northrend and away from any dragons. She had been thinking about it during her swim and had decided not to go to silvermoon. They would probably see that she wasn't a blood elf because of the way she acted. And there was the factor that her melee arcane spells could blow up a building, and she was sure they would begin to ask questions then.

Perhaps she would go and live in some other city. She remembered hearing about some race called the Kal'dorei, in fact she met one. Well, she killed one. It was one of the appalling missions her father had sent her on. She was forced to kill him, and so she did. He was very different from the blood elves. His skin had been purple, and he had forest green hair.

But then she remembered how Kaldor had told her of how the races of Azeroth are at war, and she remembered him saying that the Kal'dorei were one of his enemies. And since she was disguised as a blood elf, she wouldn't be going there anytime soon.

She would really have to learn about this war between the races, it would probably serve her in some way. She also wish she knew why they were fighting, there must have been some big reason, right? Many of the servants in her prison often spoke of people they knew fighting in these battles, and there must have been some big purpose as to why they were fighting. The servants had talked about a lot of dead warriors, so there must have been some reason for them to be fighting so much.

She also remembered hearing of racial neutral cities. She would need to learn about these too, she could live in one of them without being killed by 'enemies'. She remembered hearing of one nearby, but she couldn't remember where. That was another thing she would have to learn of in the village.

She looked up to see the sun half way below the horizon. Nightfall would come soon, and the supposed village was nowhere to be seen. All she saw was the same old pine trees and muddy banks and the occasional frog or two. Where was this village? Was it made up? She began to worry that she hadn't heard the servant's right and that she had gone the wrong way.

As her stomach began to knot in worry she saw the very first hint of any civilization. Far off in the distance she saw a small bridge going over the river. She strained her eyes to make sure she was correct, and she was. Her heart began to pound with excitement. She would be there soon! She needed to get to the village soon before the red dragon flight came out to look for her again. She would rest for a day, maybe more, and then she would be on her way. By then they would have sent red dragon flight spies out to look for her, and she couldn't risk getting caught.

She began to swim even faster and she looked up to see that the sun had disappeared and the sky beginning to turn gray. The dragons would come out soon, and she needed to find shelter. She was exposed to them, and they would quickly catch her if they happened to fly overhead.

As she neared the small bridge she changed directions to get out of the river and onto the right bank. She crawled out and began to shake as much water off as she could. Her hair would dry quickly enough, so she began to walk down the pathway. It was a cobblestone path with a lantern here and there and tall pines that concealed her from sight.

She wasn't used to walking because she had been swimming most of the day, and she stumbled a little bit. But she quickly regained her balance and began to run walk down the pathway. There was still no sign of the town, but she knew it had to be close.

She looked up once again to see that the sky had darkened even more, and soon she would need to use her dragon night vision in order to see properly.

Every dragon had certain attributes like night vision. They could also track people or things with smell and they had retractable claws in dragon form. And they came in handy a lot; at least they did for Vela. She didn't know what she would do without her night vision; she wouldn't be able to catch prey at night.

As she walked she began to hear a distant rumbling. She assumed it was thunder and kept on moving down the road. But the rumbling got louder, and she turned to see a horse drawn carriage rolling down the path and coming her way. She jumped off the path to avoid it and landed in a ditch, getting her boots even more muddy.

The horses whinnied, and she heard hooves hit the ground. She got out of the ditch and walked back onto the road and looked at the carriage that was only a few yards in front of her. She heard two feet plop to the ground, and a humongous troll appeared from the front of the wagon. He walked over to her and looked at her.

He would have been huge to her, but since she was a dragon she was very tall as a blood elf, so she was at least an inch taller than him.

He grunted and said "Sorry about dat mon, I wasn't expectin to be seein anyone on dis road. Tis usually empty. You be going to the town?"

Vela looked at the troll. He had dark green skin and two large tusks, and he had a short red beard and a red Mohawk. Vela could sense that he was very relaxed, and she could tell he meant her no harm.

"Yes" she said "How far away is it?"

He had opened his mouth to speak, but before he could the carriage door burst open and a slim blood elf woman jumped out.

"Kaijin? What's the hold up?" she asked.

Her voice was smooth yet firm, and it reminded Vela of the rogues she had met. Then she saw the two daggers hanging from the elf's waist, and she realized that she probably was a rogue. She had long black hair that she kept in a high tail, but the tip of it fell on her shoulder. She had dark red lips and a devilish smile that made her look almost evil with her arcane green eyes.

The woman looked over at Vela and said "Woe, someone's a giant!"

Vela smiled and the woman said "Kaijin, did you run over her? I can't pay for more damages and we can't just kill her. Well, we could, but I don't feel like getting my hands dirty tonight"

Kaijin shook his head and said "Almost, but nah ta' night. She was able to dodge da carriage. She be head'in tah town like us"

The woman looked at Vela and walked over so that she stood face to face with her. Well, face to shoulder. She wasn't tall enough to look her directly in the eye.

"On foot? Asked the woman "We have another three days until we get there, and that's in the carriage. You want a ride, kid?"

Vela chuckled a little bit when the woman called her a kid. She was far older than her, but the woman would never know.

"Sure" said Vela.

The elf smiled and said "Then let's get a move on, I'd like to actually get to the town. Kaijin, get the horses ready. You- what's your name?"

"You can call me Vela" she said.

"Ah, you don't like to reveal your full name?" asked the elf "Smart. The names Daena, by the way. Follow me, if you would"

Vela followed her into the surprisingly roomy carriage. There were two velvet seats on either side that were a dark red. On one there was a goblin that Vela recognized from her days with the black dragon flight. He was snoring, loudly to, and Vela sat on the opposite seat. Daena sat next to the goblin and closed the door behind her, locking it securely. There was a window on one side of the carriage and there was a smaller window on the door. There were also big red curtains for all of the windows and Vela turned around to see piled of luggage in a small space behind her seat.

With a jolt the carriage began to move again, and Vela turned her attention back to the rogue.

"Where are you heading to kid?" Daena asked "Headed home to family or something?"

Vela shook her head and said "No, I'm just getting the hell out of northrend"

Daena chuckled and said "Not a fan of the cold, are you? Don't worry, neither am I. I'll probably leave northrend once I'm done with the business I have here"

Vela raised an eyebrow and curiously asked "Business?"

Daena smiled and said "Nothing for you to be worrying about. So, why are you here?"

Vela shook her head dismissively and said "Doesn't matter now. Once I'm out of northrend, I plan to forget all about it"

"Ah, it's in the past. I see" said Daena "So why are you heading for town?"

Vela smiled and said "You ask a lot of questions, I can see why you're a rogue"

Daena laughed and said "I see you've spotted my daggers. Yes, I'm a rogue. Good eye"

"What business do you have in town?" asked Vela.

The elf casually shrugged and said "Little things here and there. You'll see once we arrive, if you stick around long enough"

Vela nodded and then looked down at the goblin sitting on the chair.

"Who's he?" she asked.

Daena followed her gaze and then said "Him? That's Grue. He's an old friend of mine; he's also my medicine man"

Vela nodded and asked "Does he plan on waking up in the next hundred years?"

Daena chuckled and said "I like you kid" she looked Vela over and asked "How old are you, anyway?"

Vela chuckled and said "Much older than you think"

"Not going to tell me?" asked Daena "Doesn't matter. I find out everyone's secret sooner or later"

"I doubt you'll find out mine" said Vela with a hint of amusement.

Daena smiled and said "Maybe" she looked at her again and said "So what I'm hearing is that you're pretty old"

Vela nodded and said "Older than you"

"How do you know that?" asked Daena.

"I just do" said Vela.

Daena was quite for a while after that, which gave Vela a chance to think. She had no idea that the village was so far away, she was glad Daena had given her a ride. She would never have escaped if she didn't. They would have caught up with her eventually, and she didn't know what she would have done then.

She yawned, and realized that she was very tired. She lay down on the chair and she heard Daena whisper goodnight before she drifted into a deep, deep, slumber.


	4. Breakfast for four

_Dear Readers: Thank you for reading! This chapter would have come sooner, but my week has been a bit busy. I would like to thank those of you who have reviewed, right now it's only one awesome person but hopefully there will be more, your reviews greatly help me to make my writing better and more entertaining for you!_

Vela was in a deep sleep, dreaming of her days as a welpling. She was flying, flying high above the clouds. It was a sunny day, and she felt warm under the precious light. She was large as a welpling, as large as a small adult dragon. She took in one last ray of warmth and then dipped down below the clouds.

As she flew over the rough cracked earth she saw memories of her life flash by. Memories of her rough and brutal training, of her torture in her prison, and of the awful things the red dragon flight did to her. She winced as a memory of one of her torturers setting her up in chains, and piling hot coals on her back.

She closed her eyes, hoping that all of the bad things would go away if she did. But they didn't, they still flashed around in her mind. She cried out into the sky, hoping that they would somehow disappear.

Then she felt a sharp pain in her head, and she began to wonder what was going on. She felt another on her shoulder, then her wrist, and she slowly felt herself drifting out of her horrid nightmare.

She blinked her eyes open to see a goblin standing in front of her with a large book in his hands. It took her a few moments to remember where she was but she finally remembered that she was in the carriage. She looked around, trying to figure out where Daena was, when the goblin hit her in the head with the book.

She looked at him and saw that he was glaring at her, but he also looked tired. He swatted the book at her again, but she caught and yanked it out of his hands. He stumbled back with the amount of force she had used to yank it, but he quickly regained his balance.

Vela looked around to see that she was still on the carriage seat, and she looked out the window to see the sun shining in, and she realized that it was mid-morning. She groaned and sat up in the chair, yawning. She stretched her arms and realized that the carriage wasn't moving.

While she was looking around the goblin, Grue, head butted her in the legs. Of course, she was a dragon, and she barely felt anything. He looked up at her, still glaring, but she just gave him the 'Really?' look.

At first he looked surprised, but he only growled and said "What are ya doing in my carriage?!"

Vela shook her head slightly and said "Your carriage? This is Daena's carriage."

"How do you know Daena?" demanded the goblin "She's my boss lady, and I know everyone she knows, and you're not one of them."

"Of course you don't know me" said Vela "You were too busy snoring on the couch."

Grue thought for a few moments and then said "Maybe, but I still don't believe ya. Daena would have told me, where ever the gal is."

"Where is she?" thought Vela.

"Well, it's the truth" she said "So deal with it. Once Daena comes back, she'll tell you."

The goblin sniffed the air and said "I don't believe ya. In fact, I don't even think you're a real elf."

Vela winced, but quickly recovered. How could he possibly know that she wasn't a real blood elf? Surely he- then it hit her. He was probably one of the goblins that worked in the undergrounds, where she had been kept prisoner by her people ever so many years ago.

"Well, I don't think you're a regular goblin. Admit it, you're from the undergrounds"

The goblin winced, but quickly recovered to say "You don't know nothin 'bout me!"

Vela smiled and said "I could guess."

The goblin frowned, and said "And I can guess about you black dra-"

Before he could finish, the carriage door burst open and bright sunlight filtered in. Once Vela's eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that it was Daena who had opened up the door, and she was smiling. Vela sniffed the air and she could smell the tempting scents of fresh cooked meat. She licked her lips hungrily, forgetting all about Grue.

When she looked back at Daena she saw that she was smiling with amusement, and she asked "Hungry? Good. Kaijin just finished cooking some boar."

She looked at Grue and said "Grue, this is Vela. She's riding with us to the village."

Grue was still frowning, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but he only swallowed and nodded.

Daena smiled and turned to Vela "Follow me, if you would."

Daena ducked out of the carriage and Vela began to follow. Then she realized she still had Grue's book, and she handed it to him. The goblin glared, but took the book and quickly walked out. Vela grunted and walked out as well.

When she was out she looked around to see that the carriage was pulled over at the edge of the road, and that they were next to a pine forest. She looked around and saw a small grass path leading into the woods, with smells of cooked meat wafting out.

Vela smiled and walked through the short path, using her nose as a guide. She arrived in a small grass clearing where Kaijin, Grue, and Daena were sitting around smoldering coals. In the back of the clearing the two horses that pulled the carriage were grazing on the green dewy grasses.

Daena turned around as Vela walked towards them and motioned for her to sit down next to her. She gratefully did so, but noticed Grue, who was on the other side of Daena, frowning. Kaijin moved over a bit to make room for Vela and she sat down, a little uncomfortably as the dew soaked into her pants.

She got settled in quickly and Daena handed her a plate of plump roasted boar, and Vela gratefully took it. She took one piece and dug in. she hadn't had a proper meal since her time in prison, and even then it was only human scraps. Daena giggled as she watched Vela eat, and Vela raised a confused eyebrow.

"It's nothing," said Daena "I've just never seen another blood elf at like that before."

Vela set her plate down and asked "Really?"

Daena nodded and said "Yeah, our people are usually so classy. You know what I mean?"

Vela realized that she was a blood elf and she quickly nodded. Daena gave her a slight nod and then continued to eat.

Vela was about to do the same but Kaijin, who was finished, asked "So Vela, what brings you to da village?"

Vela thought for a few seconds and then said "Business."

"Oh," said Daena through a mouthful of food "Same as us. We have to return the carriage."

Kaijin nodded and asked "Where do yah plan to go after dat?"

Vela was about to answer, but then her super hearing picked up Grue saying "Hopefully somewhere far from here."

She turned to the goblin and snapped "Your wish just came true, because I'm going far away from Northrend. Now, I find it rude to talk about people behind their backs"

She turned back to Daena and Kaijin and saw that they were very surprised, whereas Grue just grunted. She expected them to ask something, but they stayed silent.

"Far away?" asked Daena "Where exactly?"

Vela shrugged and said "Anywhere that's not here."

"Don't like Northrend?" asked Kaijin.

Vela shook her head and said "You wouldn't understand what I've been through here."

Vela closed her eyes and a shudder went up her spine as images of her tortures went through her mind. She shook herself, and then opened her eyes to see Kaijin and Daena staring at her, waiting for her to say more. But Vela stayed silent, and eventually they looked away.

Vela looked at the horses and asked "Why are they out here instead of at the carriage?"

Kaijin looked at her and said "If dey were at da carriage, sneaky little thieves, like da boss lady, would steal da carriage."

Vela looked at Daena to see if she was insulted but the rogue was only smiling proudly. Vela turned back to Kaijin and nodded. He seemed smart, for a troll. Kaldor and the servants had always said that trolls were dumb mud crawlers, but Kaijin seemed pretty smart. Vela began to wonder just how much she had heard about Azeroth was true.

But her thoughts were interrupted by Daena asking "So why are you in Northrend anyway?"

The question caught Vela off guard, and she frantically tried to think of an answer. She couldn't shrug it off; they wouldn't let her get by with that. She quickly thought of something and began to relax.

"I'd rather not talk about it; it was a past I'd like to forget."

Daena shrugged, and she heard Grue snicker, but otherwise no one asked anything more about it. She sighed, she was telling the truth, partially. She really didn't want to talk about it, and she did just wanted to forget about it and move on with her life as if it had never happened. She sighed again; she had to get out of here before she could completely forget about it.

Again her thoughts were interrupted, but not by Kaijin or Daena, but by the suspicious little goblin Grue.

"So where do ya come from, Vela?" he asked.

Vela panicked, but calmly said "Why Silvermoon city, of course."

Grue looked unconvinced, but he only went on asking "Oh really? So how do you like Lor'themar?"

Vela panicked again. The goblin was obviously trying to let her secret out about being a dragon. But she was smarter than that, and she also had Kaldor's old stories to speak from.

She planned out what she was going to say and then said "He's all right, but I wish he was a little more thoughtful of the people. But he is much better than the prince."

Grue grunted, and began to eat. But Vela also noticed Daena shivering at her sentence.

Vela raised an eyebrow and asked "What's wrong?"

Daena looked up at her and smiled weakly. "The prince was a close friend of mine, a long time ago."

Vela frowned; she wished she hadn't said anything.

"I'm sorry-" she began, but Daena shook her head and motioned for her to stop.

"Don't be" she said "It was a long time ago, and I know it was for the best that he died."

Vela knew by the look on Daena's face that she wasn't all right, but she only nodded.

Kaijin noticed Daena becoming said too, and said "It looks like a storm is comin', boss lady. We should be a goin soon."

Daena and Vela looked up and saw dark clouds forming up above. As if to emphasize Kaijin's point, a loud boom of thunder rippled through the air and a bright streak of lightning lit up the cloudy sky.

Daena nodded and said "You're right. Let's get a move on then."

They all got up and began to gather their things. Kaijin went to get the horses, Daena put out the fire, and Grue gathered his books and scrolls. Once they had everything, the hurried down the pathway and out of the clearing towards the carriage.

Daena, Grue, and Vela piled into the carriage while Kaijin quickly fastened the two horses to the carriage. Vela sat on one of the cushions while Daena sat on the other and Grue sat next to her, frowning at Vela.

Vela heard the crack of a whip and the neighing of the horses and then they began to move down the road. It began to rain slightly and Grue began to read one of his books while Daena organized some of the luggage in the back. Vela looked outside and found the rain surprisingly calming. She didn't have any explanation for it, it just made her feel completely at ease.


	5. Raindrops

The rain seemed to hypnotize Vela as she continued to look out. Every drop every peck on the window. It was all so… calming. Vela had never been calm, at least not in a very long time. For the past few hundred years she had been too focused on survival to pay any attention to rain drops.

But there she was, listening to their pitter-patter, letting it sooth all of the stress that had long overwhelmed her body. The stress had made her weak, unhealthy, sick in the mind. Some days she feared she would become like her brethren, corrupted. But she never did, somehow she managed to stay sane even though the whispers occasionally entered her head, threatening to take over. But she always kept them at bay; it was as if her mind was incorruptible. The whispers had tried everything. Black mail, twisting her sense of reason, fake visions of the 'future'. You name it, they tried it.

But it never worked, and eventually the little voices left her head, and she wouldn't have to listen to them any longer. But then they would come back, with another plan, and then they'd go away after they failed. Vela had no idea why they were never able to take her, perhaps she was too smart, or perhaps her conscious was too pure for them, she didn't know. All she knew was that they came, and then they left, and she was always left the same as she had been before they had come, sane.

She looked out the window and up into the sky. The clouds were still black and showed no sign of leaving, and she knew that it would continue raining for a while. She sighed, glad that she would have the time to think, and looked away from them and towards Daena and Grue o the opposite bench.

Daena was fast asleep, or so she seemed, it was hard to tell with a rogue, and Grue was reading one of his books. He wore these funny little glass things on his face, and Vela stared at them, trying hard not to laugh. But a chuckle escaped her, and Grue looked up from his book in alarm.

When he saw her face he sighed and asked "What's so funny, dragon?"

She suddenly got serious and shushed him, before saying "Do you want the whole world to know?!"

She was looking at Daena, and he caught her gaze. He looked down at the rogue and then looked back at Vela with the most casual expression.

He shrugged and said "Her? She's asleep."

Vela raised an eyebrow and asked "How can you be so certain?"

Grue shrugged again and said "I've known her long enough to tell. So, what's so funny, dragon?"

She grunted and looked away. She didn't like him; he was too casual for normal. And he knew her secret, which was bad. He could black mail her. But then again, she could always eat him if he did that. But then, Daena would wonder where Grue was, so she'd probably only threaten to eat him.

She turned toward him, suddenly curious at how he knew her secret. She sat up, ready to inquire him on his knowledge of her.

"Uh hem," she said.

He looked up at her, a confused look on his face, and she went on "How do you know I'm a dragon? It's not casual information that everybody knows."

His face hardened, and Vela assumed he wouldn't tell her. But then his gaze softened, just a bit, and he put down his book to look her in the eyes.

He cleared his throat and began "You're correct, I was an undergrounds goblin, long ago."

_Knew it!_ Thought Vela.

The goblin went on "I have the natural ability to sense dragons, especially black dragons. It was more than easy to figure out that you were one."

"I see." said Vela.

She sagged down back in her seat, preparing to ponder about what she had learned and how it could help her in the future. She glances over at Grue to see him slowly picking his book up. But then his brow wrinkled from thought and he dropped it back on his lap. He thought for a few more moments and then looked at her curiously.

She sat up, suddenly alarmed, and stared back at him.

He stared at her eyes as he asked "So how did you end up here?"

She sighed. She didn't know whether to or not. But then again, what else was there to lose?

She sat up straight in her chair and began to speak "I was born in the undergrounds, just like any other whelp." She decided to leave out the part of deathwing being her father, she figured it would only make the goblin more suspicious "But I was imprisoned by my own people, because I was sane."

Grue gasped and said "But sane… how could this…"

"Don't ask me because I don't even know." Said Vela "Now, as I was saying, the prison I was in was invaded by the red dragonflight, and they took me prisoner so that they could study me and learn about the black dragon weakness's, and how I was still sane. There prison was here in Northrend, I escaped from there only a few nights ago."

Grue nodded in acceptance and his brow furrowed as he began to think again. Vela leaned back, glad that she didn't need to go into detail with anything. She looked down at the sleeping rogue on the opposite couch to see her stirring lightly, and she wondered if she had overheard any of their conversation. She looked over at Grue, and he looked casually unconcerned, so she forgot about the idea and went back to listening to the raindrops hitting the carriage.

They had begun to lighten up, and Vela thought that she would fall asleep if she continued to listen to them. She still couldn't explain why they were so hypnotizing to her, they just were. And they made her want to lie down and go to sleep, listening to their steady beat.

But as she swayed in her seat, slowly falling to sleep, Grue piped up.

"So, the red dragons captured you?" he asked.

Vela, surprised by the sudden question, turned towards him to see that he looked generally curious about the subject.

She sighed, and said, "Yes, they raided my former prison in the undergrounds and captured me from it. I was too weak to fight back."

"So wait," he interrupted, "Why were you a prisoner of the black dragons? They're your people, right?"

"Yes, they were my kin," she said "But I was a disgrace to them, because the old gods don't whisper to me. They imprisoned me, saying their 'Masters' had told them to because I would betray them."

"Would you?" asked Grue.

Vela sighed and leaned her head back against her comfy chair. Would she? She wasn't sure she knew herself. They had hated her, tortured her, imprisoned her, taunted her, but they were still her people. And whether she liked it or not, they were her kin, and she knew she would show mercy upon them, no matter how much they had hurt her.

She looked back at Grue and shook her head, saying, "No, I wouldn't, I couldn't."

"But they imprisoned you!" he exclaimed.

She continued to shake her head and said, "They may have done much harm to me, but they are my kin, my family by blood. In my culture blood runs deep, and I grew up with that culture."

"Really?" asked Grue disbelievingly "They did so much to you, how can you forgive them?"

"I didn't say I forgave them," said Vela "But they are my kin, and I would show mercy upon them. What does it matter anyway? They're all dead now, besides me."

"How do you know?" asked Grue "I mean, how do you know you're the only one left?"

"I can sense them," she said "And I right now, I feel nothing. Around here, I used to feel hundreds of them, but now it's as if they have completely vanished from the face of Azeroth."

Grue nodded and said "I see."

Vela sighed; then asked "Anything else on your mind, before I get comfy again?"

Grue thought for a few moments and then asked "The red dragons are nice and kind, how could they imprison you?"

"Nice and kind?" asked Vela, laughing the words out. "What lies they have spread! They are anything _but _that if you ask me! They showed me no mercy or kindness in that cold black prison. They didn't listen to me when I explained my saneness, and I was tortured every day!"

Grue seemed truly surprised by her words, and Vela began to wonder how many other lies the red dragon flight had spread around the world. Perhaps they had lied about their powers, and that they really were-

"I just don't get it. Why would they do such things? I've always known them to be the most merciful dragons." said Grue.

Vela had to try hard from laughing, and she really did wonder if the mortals on Azeroth were fools, or if the red dragonflight were sneaks.

"As far as I'm concerned, I don't think they've ever heard of the word mercy." said Vela.

Grue shook his head in disappointment of the red dragons and said "I always thought that the black dragons were the evil ones."

"They are," said Vela "But so are the red dragons."

Grue nodded, and Vela noticed that it seemed to be hard for him to except that the life binders weren't all nice, and that so many had been cruel to Vela. Vela had been locked up for so long, that she had probably missed a lot of what they had done to prevent the mortals from seeing what they could do. They were supposed to protect life, not torture it until it almost withers and dies, yet they didn't do that with Vela. Black dragon or not, she was life, and they weren't supposed to be doing such things to a piece of life.

As her eyes wondered around the room they landed on the sleeping form of the rogue in front of her. The rogue stirred in her sleep, and Vela was sure that she would awaken soon. The rogue rolled onto her side and fell of the seat with a thump, and she grunted. Vela put out a hand for Daena, and the elf gladly took it and pulled herself up off the carriage floor. She looked tired, but she managed a quick thank you and then plopped back on to the seat she had been sitting in.

Vela looked outside to see that the rain had nearly stopped, and the sun shining bright to show a faint rainbow going across the sky. Vela smiled, happy that the bad weather had finally stopped. She liked the calming sound of the raindrops, but she did not like mud, and she especially didn't like walking in it.

Daena yawned, and stretched her arms into the sky. "That was a good nap. Did I miss anything while I was out?"

Vela looked at Grue to see him shaking his head, and she did the same. She was glad that Grue didn't look too eager to tell anyone about Vela being a blood elf, and that his mood from yesterday had faded away.

"Good," said Daena "We should be arriving in town tomorrow night. I need to stock up on supplies before Kaijin starts to complain about there being no jerky."

They all chuckled at her little joke, but they fell silent as the carriage came to an abrupt stop. Vela had to hold on to her seat to keep from jolting forward and falling onto the floor. Outside she heard the horses whinny and she began to wonder what had spooked them so.

"What the hell is going on out there?" muttered Daena.

Then it came. Vela's insides lurched as she heard one wing flap, then another, and another, as it got closer and closer to the carriage. Then the carriage rocked back and forth a little as something landed hard on the ground outside of the carriage door. With a sickening taste in her mouth, Vela looked outside her window to see a large red scaled wing in front of it. As butterflies formed in her stomach, she began to recognize the long white scar that ran along the wing that marked the wound she had given her enemy long ago.

Her stomach lurched as one sickening word whispered in her head:

Dalgris.


	6. Dalgris

The red dragon was unmistakable, he was definitely Dalgris. Vela had known that dragon for a long time. He had tortured her, he had been the one to capture her, and she had been the one to give him the awful scar that ended his flying. He could still fly, but only low to the ground, and every dragon loves flying, and Vela knows his disability had been hard for him. And he hated her, he truly utterly hated her. And she hated him, for bringing her to the prison that she ad hated for all those long years.

He was an old dragon, he was a few thousand years old, and he was huge. Even if Vela was willing to change into her dragon form and fight, he would win. She was large for her age, but he was gigantic, and he would squash her in a second. Besides, she wasn't even willing to give up her secret, so that wouldn't be happening.

Daena looked out the window and said "What the hell is this damn dragon doing?! I need to get this carriage to the village tonight!"

Vela swallowed the lump in her throat. She had other, larger, worries in mind. Dalgris would recognize her by scent, and even if her couldn't reveal that she was a dragon and take her captive, he would follow them and find a way to corner her. Right now, the only thing that was protecting her from his claws was the carriage door.

She looked outside again and saw that he was turning around to face the carriage and she ducked as his huge yellow eye looked right into the carriage. She looked up to see Daena still looking outside and to see Grue staring at her, mouthing the words 'what's going on?!'

She only shook her head in a signal to keep quiet. Dalgris would hear her voice and easily recognize it. He had, after all, spent a few centuries listening to it. She began to wonder if he could already smell her, and if he was already planning a way to capture her.

"No." she thought "I'm not going back, not now, not ever. Not after all I've down to get free!"

She heard a banging against the carriage and she looked up to see Daena trying to open up the carriage door, but with no avail.

"Damn dragon!" she hissed as she gave up "Blocking the door! I thought they were supposed to be smart!"

Vela heard yelling outside, and she recognized it as Kaijin. She was still ducking beneath the window, but she could hear Dalgris outside as he turned his head to look in the direction of Kaijin. She glanced a look outside to see that Dalgris was not in front of the carriage anymore, and she slowly began to sit up again. She saw that Kaijin had gotten off of his seat on the front of the carriage and was now standing faced to face, well, face to snout, with Dalgris.

The look on his ace was of pure fright and confusion, and Vela saw that Dalgris had a glint of hunger in his eyes. But Vela knew he wouldn't eat Kaijin, it was against the cod of the claw, unless it was in self-defense. And Kaijin wasn't stupid enough to attack a dragon; at least Vela hoped he wasn't.

She looked up as the carriage door opened and she saw Daena getting out, and she hoped she wouldn't provoke Dalgris. She had seen him eat a few servants after they complained to him, and after he made sure there were no guards around to see.

Once Daena was gone Grue looked at her at her and asked "What's going on?"

"I'm going to be captured again, that's what's going on!" snapped Vela. She took a deep breath and said "That's Dalgris, a red dragon guard. If he sees me, or smells me, he's going to recognize me and he'll take me away."

"But wouldn't he be revealing the secret of how the red dragons torture black dragons?" asked Grue.

Vela shook her head in annoyance and said "He wouldn't just take me, he would follow us and then capture me when I'm alone and there's no one there to see his crime."

"Can't you just go dragon mode and kill the damn thing?" asked Grue, starting to look worried.

"No, he's much bigger than me, he would squash me with a mere stomp." Said Vela "Besides, my secret would be revealed, and I'm not willing to do that unless I have to, as in someone will get hurt if I don't."

Grue nodded and asked "So what do we do?"

Vela sighed and side "Hide and hope he doesn't see me, or smell me."

Grue looked scared for a second, but then he went back to looking outside, as if their conversation had never even happened.

"What if he captures you?" asked Grue.

Vela turned to look him straight in the eye, and coldly said "I won't allow that to happen."

Grue nodded warily, and Vela new he had understood her message. She would sacrifice anything to keep her freedom, anything. She would run, she would fight her best; she might even make a sacrifice if she had to. She liked Daena and the others, but her freedom was more important, and she had her freedom above their safety, even above their lives. Daena was, after all, a black dragon. And even though she was sane, she would still sacrifice a friend for the greater good, and right now her freedom was the greater good.

She peeked outside to see Daena glaring at the dragon and Kaijin cowering behind her. Dalgris took one sniff, and Vela hoped that her scent hadn't gotten on either of them. But he did nothing, and she guessed that Dalgris hadn't smelled her scent. Then, with a wave of a claw, he turned into his humanoid form, which was as a blood elf with long black hair. He towered over Daena, but the rogue looked as determined as ever.

But for a second Vela thought she saw a glimmer of suspicion in Daena's eyes, but it disappeared so quickly that Vela wondered if it ever was really there. But her mind didn't trick her when it came to reading a person's emotions, and she just pushed the thought to the back of her mind and focused on the situation at hand. Somehow she would need to bypass Dalgris's sense of smell, and possibly his sense of sight.

But as long as he didn't ask to come inside of the carriage, she would be okay. If he hadn't already detected her, that is. She wasn't sure if he could smell through the wall, since she had never been in a situation where he had done that, but she didn't think so. She couldn't smell through the wall, and even though his sense of smell was exceptional, he probably couldn't either.

Then her mind went through what she would have to do if he detected her. If he did, she would know. She would have to abandon the carriage as soon as he was out of sight, and possibly change into her dragon and fly.

"No," she thought "Every dragon within a hundred miles would detect me if I went into dragon form. I wouldn't stand a chance, plus Dalgris would know it was me."

She could not allow ant dragon, especially not a red dragon, to figure out that she was also a dragon. And if they found out she was a black dragon, she would probably die. Or she would be tracked down and captured, but most likely killed. She had no choice but to just hide and hope the dragon outside couldn't, hadn't, sensed her.

She glanced outside again. Daena was glaring at Dalgris as he spoke to her, and Kaijin was beginning to come out from behind Daena, but he was still very cautious in doing so. Dalgris towered over Daena, but the rogue was too proud of herself and too stubborn to back down. From what she could tell Vela thought it seemed that Dalgris was amused by Daena's behavior. And Vela would have been too, if she were in his shoes.

After all, he was a dragon, and she seemed to be ignoring that vital fact. He could crush her, eat her, claw her, and she didn't seem to care. It was as if he hadn't just transformed from a dragon and into a blood elf, and maybe that was it. Maybe, since Daena had never been around a dragon and she knew it, and that he was in his humanoid form, she just acted like he was just any ordinary blood elf.

And she was just yelling at him, with her eyebrows creased and her forehead scrunched up in wrinkles of anger. Kaijin, of course, was still hiding behind her, and Vela thought she even saw him nervously shake. Vela had never been very scared, not even during her torture, but she could imagine being in front of a humongous dragon in humanoid form must be very nerve racking for a mortal with no connection to dragons.

Out of nowhere Grue began to ask more questions, "What are we going to do if he finds you?"

Vela turned around and said "If he even gets close, I might have to run for it. Hopefully he won't even ask to see the carriage, and hopefully he hasn't already smelled my scent."

"Smell your scent?" asked Grue.

"Yes," said Vela "All dragons have a great sense of smell, and since he's much older he has an even better one. Every dragon has radar in their minds, so whenever a dragon in dragon form is nearby they can sense their presence."

"Doesn't that mean he can sense you now?" asked Grue.

"No," said Vela "They can only sense dragons when they're in their dragon form, but Dalgris can smell me. However, I'm hoping that the carriage door has muffled out my scent enough so that he can't recognize it immediately."

"You seem awfully calm," said Grue "Shouldn't you be scared to death?"

Vela sighed and said "I don't get scared when I'm in a situation, I fix it."

"You're not even a little scared?" asked Grue.

Vela shook her head and said "I been through so much, this is just normal to me."

Grue looked slightly shocked and curious, but he nodded in understanding and once again went back to looking outside. Vela peeked out the window and was almost shocked to death as she saw Dalgris coming towards the carriage. She prepared for the worst, but a few seconds went by and the door was still closed.

She peeked her head up slightly and saw that Daena had beaten Dalgris to the door and was now blocking him from it. But her burst of relief was short, because Vela knew that this would not keep Dalgris out for long. If he wanted that door open, he would find a way to open it.

Panic began to well up in the pit of her stomach, but she swallowed it down and tried to think of what she could do. She needed something to cover her scent, and probably something to conceal her face too. She would need something covered with a harsh enough scent that it would seem like her natural scent.

She snapped her attention to Grue and quickly said "Grue, I'm running out of time! I need something that can conceal my face and my scent!"

Grue took a few moments to suck in the information and then asked "You mean something that smells really, really, bad?"

"Yes!" snapped Vela.

Grue nodded and then began to think, his brow furrowing in thought, and Vela feared that there wouldn't be enough time for her. She peeked outside and saw that Dalgris had gotten closer, but Daena still had determination written across her face, mixed with anger. But mostly anger.

"I think I have something!" said Grue.

"Then get it!" snapped Vela.

Grue nodded and then jumped off the seat and ran over to the back where their entire luggage was kept. Vela could hear him shoving stuff out of the way and things hitting other things. She looked outside again and saw that Dalgris was getting pissed. She grunted, angry that she hadn't been more cautious. She could have avoided this if only she had paid more attention to the skies.

"Got it!" exclaimed Grue.

Vela snapped her attention back to Grue. Her nose wrinkled in disgust as a horrid stench hit her nose. In Grue's hand was a tattered and wrinkled old black piece of cloth that smelled of animal guts and blood.

"What is that?" asked Vela, appalled.

"It's the blanket Kaijin uses to clean his knives and carry animal meat." said Grue "Will it work?"

"If it doesn't, I don't know what will." said Vela.

"Good," said Grue as her tossed her the rag "Knock yourself out."

Vela flinched as the appalling rag hit her, but she reluctantly picked it up and began to wrap it around herself. She wanted to vomit, but she reminded herself that she had been through much worse, and she somehow managed to restrain herself from ripping the cloth off of her, going dragon mode, and raking it to shreds with her claws.

But she wrapped it around her face so that her hair and the upper most part of her face was concealed, all though her nose was wrinkled in disgust. As she looked outside to see what was going on, the carriage door opened up and a bright light washed, outlining the shape of Dalgris's scaly dragon snout.


	7. Disguised and discreet

_Dear Readers: I'm sorry this chapter was a little late, my week has been busy and I've come down with a slight case of writers block. I hope this chapter isn't any less in quality than the others, but I hope I get over my miny writers block soon._

Vela winced as Dalgris pressed his snout close to her. she was afraid that he had seen through her disguise, and that he would take her back to her prison. She began to prepare herself for the possibility. At least she would go back knowing that she could escape, if she tried hard enough. She would escape again if she was recaptured, they wouldn't be able to contain her again for much longer. Not after being free for the time she has been, she would never go back.

Dalgris sniffed the ground in front of her first, and she wish she could tell what he was thinking. But his face was emotionless, and she couldn't decipher anything. She could hear Daena yelling outside, but her cries were muffled and scratchy. Vela was too busy focusing on Dalgris to even try and hear what she was saying.

Dalgris pushed his snout to the back of the carriage first, where Grue was. Grue was pressed uncomfortably up against the wall as Dalgris's snout came even closer to him

"Watch it buddy!" snapped Grue, who was obviously not very fond of Dalgris pressing him up against the wall and sniffing him.

Dalgris's head was all the way inside now, taking up most of the carriage. Vela was pressed up against the back of her seat, with Dalgris's scaly red hide only mere inches away from her face. She was breathing in great gasps, and she could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest.

It was so bad that she bagen to wonder if she would die of a heart attack right then and there, not even giving Dalgris a chance to know who she was. She supposed that would be an ok death, after all, it was better than spending the next few centuries in a dark prison cell.

Dalgris edged away from Grue, obviously beging unsuccessful in finding any trace of Vela on him. Dalgris's huge yellow eye rested on Vela's heavily cloaked body. He could not see her face, but if her could, it would be a face of pure, utter, fear. But somehow Vela managed to stay still, even though on the inside her stomach was doing barrel rolls and her heart was ready to burst.

That huge yellow eye rested on her for so long that Vela wondered if Dalgris had turned into a statue. But the ginormous red dragon finally blinked, and he began to press his snout to the floor in front of Vela.

She could hear Daena screaming outside, but Vela was too full of fear to hear any of what she was saying. It was as if nothing existed in the world to Vela, nothing except herself and the huge dragon snout resting at her feet. Grue, Daena, the carriage, was all non existent now. There was nothing else that mattered to Vela now besides the dragin that stood in front of her, carefully sniffing for the scent he desperately wanted to find.

Vela stared down at the scaly red snout, seeming to be hypnotized by just how close he was to finding out what she was. She could see the dungeon walls, building up around her, and she could feel the hard, cold, stone floor beneath her, sucking out the last drops of heat the remained in her body.

She could see the countless servants running about, not giving a damn about her limp form lying on the ground of her pitch black cell, scarcely moving at all. She knew then that she would die if she went back to the prison, she just couldn't take that all over again. She could feel the cold creeping over her, and the deep hunger clawing at the pit of her stomach.

For a moment, she was in the other world all over again, she was back in her cold cage. But she opened her eyes, and the light filtered in, and she realized that she wasn't there just yet. She still had a chance, however small it might be. She wasn't in that dungeon, she wasn't a prisoner. She could escape, she just had to have confidence in herself.

She looked down to see Dalgris's scaly snout right at her feet, sniffing away. His snout worked his way up her body, only mere inches away from touching her. As he sniffed the rag that covered her body he recoiled in disgust, and she hoped that he hadn't sensed her at all.

He looked at her for a few minutes, studying her with his two hug yellow eyes. But then he blinked, and he slowly slided his head out of the carriage. The world began to reveal itself to Vela again. She could hear Daena's yelling more clearly now, and she could see a frightened Grue sitting across from her, his eyes full with fear and his breathing coming in quick bursts.

Vela could feel her heart slow, and her breathing as well. The carriage door was wide open, and she could see Dalgris sniffing Daena and a frightened Kaijin outside. She could see the red of rage in Daena's face, and she could see the dread of fear in Kaijin's eyes. She was amused, despite the situation she was in, at Daena's stubborn behavior.

She had never met a single mortal that was more stubborn. She hadn't met many mortals, but something told her that Daena was quite unique wheb it came to her personality and behavior.

While Vela was looking outside, she hadn't noticed Grue sliding closer to her and she nearly jumped out of her seat when he asked, "Did it work?"

Vela snapped her attention towards him and silently nodded her head, then motioned with her fingers to be quiet. He nodded silently and slid back over to where one of his many books were. Vela was fairly certain that Dalgris wasn't able to hear them, but she didn't want to take any chances. It seemed that her disguise had worked, and she didn't want to blow by saying something that would give her away.

Once Grue was back to reading his book Vela looked outside. She was surprised to see that Dalgris was now sniffing the horses. They whinnied with fear, and they fidgitted here and there, trying to avoid Dalgris.

Vela chuckled. She thought this was extremely silly of Dalgris, she couldn't even morph into a horse! She looked at Daena to see that she was still beet red in the face, but she had stopped yelling. Kaijin had come out of hiding a bit, but for the most part he stayed behind Daena.

Dalgris began to circle around the carriage, sniffing like a blood hound, but he seemed to have no luck. He took one last glance at the carriage with his huge yellow eyes, then he leaped into the sky and flew away.

Even though her had obviously left, there was no way Vela would get out of that carriage until he was far away, just in case he would be able to see her. Then a waft of vile stench hit her nose, and she realized that she was still wearing the rag that she had put on.

She wrinkled her nose in disgust and quickly tore the rag off, throwing it behind the seat were the rest of the luggage was kept. She grunted as she waved the stench out of her face. As she did this she didn't hear the loud footsteps coming towards the carriage, and she nearly jumped with surprise as the carriage door slammed open.

In walked in a grumpy Daena, who still had red cheeks, but the color was fading to a light pink. "The nerve of- what the hell is the awful stench?! It smells like rotten kodo meat in here!"

Grue looked up from his book and quickly said, "I think some of Kaijins boar meat has gone rotten."

"Just great!" said Daena sarcastically. "We would have needed that meat for tonight sonce the carriage is broken."

"The carriage is broken?" asked Vela, who had finally stopped waving the smell away.

"Yeah." Said Daena "That stupid dragon busted one of the wheels with his tail. What a clutz. Anyway, Kaijin said he can fix it but it's going to take a while. Come on, lets get out and find something to eat."

They all got up, even Grue, and they began to go outside.

Once they were all out Daena turned around and added "Oh, and the horses are spooked too. Kaijin says it will take them a bit before they can pull the carriage."

"Damn dragon." Muttered Grue.

Vela looked at the carriage to see that Kaijin had knelt sown beside one of the front wheels, which was obviously busted. He looked irritated as he began to take the busted wheel off, and she heard him mutter something in trollish which she guessed was curses.

Daena led them to the edge of the woods, where she stopped and said, "Okay. Here's the deal, Grue, you'll stay behind and make a fire. Try to use dry wood, it burns better." Grue nodded and ran into the forest, and Daena turned to Vela and asked "Do you know how to hunt?"

Vela shrugged casually and said "Well enough."

"Good," said Daena. She took one of her daggers off of her belt and handed it to Vela while saying "I'm sure you can figure out how to use this. Just don't scare off the prey, okay?"

Vela nodded and they both headed off into the woods. Vela was slightly amused at how Daena treated her with hunting, as if she had never even eaten meat. When really she could easily kill a few bucks, in her dragon form that is. But she could probably figure out how to use a dagger, after a while. She could easily just squash something to death, but she supposed that would look a bit weird to a mortal such as Daena.

Or she could hit something to death, beat something to death, smash something to death, suffocation was an option- the point was, she's good at killing stuff. Then again, she was a black dragon, and it was kind of natural for them to be good at those sort of things. She could always use her magic to, but that could back fire and set the entire forest on fire.

She sighed, she would just have to settle with hunting with the pointy knife. And she would just have to live with Daena treating her like she had never hunted a single day in her life.

Daena turned to the right and signaled for her to split up, so Vela turned to the left. Once she could not longer hear Daena's footsteps in the distance, she began to sprint through the forest, not even making a sound as she swiftly jumped from tree root, to tree root, to an occasional rock. She was a born hunter, she wasn't new to the prospect.

On the oustside, she was a blood elf, but on the onside, she was a dragon. Dragons hunted, they killed, they feasted off of what they caught themselves, not off of what they bought. She felt a great strength, a strenght she hadn't felt in a long time, well up inside her.

It was the strength og the fighters, of the hunters, of those who survived off of their own skills. It was the purest of all strengths, and it enpowered Vela to go on. She could feel her muscles getting stronger from this strenght deep within her, and she could feel herself sprinting even faster from this new strength.

This strength was at the heart of all beings, it was replenishing, it was strong, it was large. It was the strength of a natural born hunter.


	8. On a Cliff

Vela crouched behind a bush, carefully watching the movements of the forest for a sign of prey. She was hunting with the knife Daena had given her, but she didn't use it very often. She usually just used her hands and feet, if even that. She had been hunting for a good hour, and she wasn't tired at all. Like all dragons, she was naturally good at hunting, whether it be in humanoid form or in dragon form.

All though, she wished she could have been in her dragon form. She was always better at hunting then, and she had been in her humanoid for so long that she was beginning to miss her dragon form. She was tired of always forgetting that her teeth were not extremely sharp, and forgetting that she did not have claws.

She could feel the urge to transform into a dragon developing inside of her, and she hoped she would be able to keep her animal instincts at bay. She wished she could, but she knew she couldn't, not at the time.

She grunted in frustration as she stepped on a twig, snapping it in half, and scared away a nearby bird. She looked around and saw that she was near a small stream running through the mossy rocks of the forest. She realized that she was extremely tired, sweat covered her face, and she slowly walked over to the water.

Beyond the stream the trees were drastically scarce, and she guessed that she was near a cliff. She knelt down by the water, right where it poured out into a small waterfall on the rocks, and cupped her hands. She let some of the water pour into her hands, and she shuddered when the cool liquid touched her skin. She poured it into her mouth, and she instantly relaxed. All of her tense muscles eased up, and she opened up her mind to the sounds of the birds in the trees high above her head.

She suddenly realized that she was filthy. Her clothes, what was left, were dirty and tattered with rips here and there. Her boats were muddy and she spotted a hole in one of them. She felt her hair, and was surprised to find that it was greasy and slightly tangled. She wrinkled her nose as she realized just how appalling she smelled. She took a mental note for her to get some clothes and take a bath when she got into town.

She sighed as she remembered her goal to get tow town. How many days had she been free? And how many more days would she be free? She shook the thought out of her mind. She would never be a prisoner again, never. She would get as far away from Northrend as possible, and she would live the rest of her life in peace.

She sat down in the soft green moss lining the stream, and began to look around. Her environment had changed drastically. She had started out in a small pine forest, but now she was in a lush thick forest, with plants and trees of all kinds, and ahead of her was plain land and she guessed there was also a cliff.

But she liked the change, the thick forest and beautiful flowers was much more inviting than the prickly leaves of the pine trees and the cold snow that covered the ground. She took a deep breath, inhaling the slightly warm air. She had been in Northrend for so long that she didn't notice the cold. She didn't even get goose bumps anymore.

She looked up at the usually dull gray sky to see that it was surprisingly a clear light blue, with the sun shining brightly down at her. She smiled as the warm sunrays soaked into her skin, instantly energizing her. She felt almost like she had when she was a young dragon, sunning her scales in the warm sun. But that had been long ago, in a time that would never come again, no matter how much Vela wanted it.

She sighed, and forgot all about the warm days she had spent as a whelpling. They were long gone, nothing but memories. Soon she would be living an entirely different life, somewhere away from all of the trouble of her past. She got up and began to walk down the stream, away from the forest.

She looked out at the plain land across from the stream, and began to wonder what was out there. She had never really been on a plain, she was always to afraid she would set the place on fire by accident. She stopped for a second, studying the treeless land. There didn't seem to be any prey, or any predators, and the barren landscape looked rather inviting.

Vela, being a black dragon who had grown up with the most snobby and rude people that ever lived, and being tortured nearly to death not very long ago, was not fond of people. In fact, she found being around others a very bad time. She only tolerated Daena and the others because, for one she needed them, and two she actually liked them, believe it or not. But other than that, she really didn't like people, at all. She would always prefer solitude.

She hopped across the lake with ease, since her muscles were the same as they had been when she was a dragon. She hit the ground perfectly, not faltering a bit. She sniffed the air out of habit, and then stopped when she remembered that she was in her dragon form. She stood there with her hands on her hips and began to examine her environment. It was rather, simple. She was surrounded by knee high yellow brown grass, with a few pine trees scattered here and there.

Satisfied that there was nothing there that she couldn't handle, Vela began to walk around, taking in the landscape as she did. She was heading straight, where she suspected there was a cliff. She wasn't afraid of heights of course; she was a dragon after all. She had spent more than half of her life thousands of feet above the land. She found cliffs rather peaceful, they reminded her just how powerful she was.

Sometimes she was consumed in the thoughts of just how powerful she was. She could easily become the next Deathwing, if she did a few things that is. Once she was large enough, not even the red dragonflight would be able to stop her. Her father had made a mistake. He had not been big enough to withstand the fury of the other aspects. But Vela, on the other hand, could grow large in secret. She could be in her disguise for centuries upon centuries, getting larger and larger, larger than any other dragon in the world. Then, she could set fire to the entire world of Azeroth, and no one could stop her.

But in the end, she had always dismissed these thoughts. She knew this was the wrong way to go about things, and she knew that there was always a way that the mortals could stop her. No one, not even she, had thought that Deathwing could be stopped. But he was, and with him went the entire black dragon race. Except for Vela, that is. And she would never listen to the voices of the old gods, never.

She almost fell to her doom as she arrived at the cliff ledge. She stumbled back to her feet, and looked down at the bottom of the canyon. The Cliff side was a dark orange, and she guessed that she was about a mile or so up in the air. She saw a small village at the bottom, and she wondered if that was the village she would be going to. She suddenly realized that she had absolutely no plan of where she would go once she got to the village.

She sat down on the edge of the cliff, her legs dangling over it, and began to think. All this time her only goal had been to get away from Northrend, but where to? She had no plan. She didn't know anything about the mortal world; she didn't know what was what and who was who. She supposed she could ask Daena, but then she might look suspicious. Something, she didn't know what, was telling her that there was a place for her to be.

She wasn't sure what it was, but she felt drawn to some place in the south. She felt as if there was something important that was waiting for her there. But she had no idea what it was, and every day that she got farther and farther from it, she sensed it less and she yearned for it more. It was this strong feeling in the back of her mind, which felt somewhat familiar. She would think about it, but for now she just wanted to get away from the prison of the red dragons.

She looked down beneath her, at the village below. She thought it was silly to put a village in such a place. The people could easily get cornered during an attack, and a land slide could destroy everything. She often wondered why mortals were so foolish like that, but she didn't delve into it to deeply. She always thought it was useless to ponder such things, since there was no changing it.

As she looked down at the village she thought she could see tiny moving specks, which she supposed were people bustling about, doing their daily routine of life. Vela wondered if that ever got boring. She knew she would get bored, doing the same thing every day for her entire life. She had been through that, in a way, during her imprisonment. It had always been the same thing over and over again. Wake up. Eat breakfast, not matter how rotten it was. Get tortured. Go to sleep. Every day, with no end.

Vela shook the thought from her mind and got up. She was tired at looking at the village, it was boring to her. She decided to walk along the Cliff side. The height didn't bother her, in the worst case scenario she could always transform into her dragon form and fly, if she fell. A few rocks would fall off here and there, going down into the village. Vela heard screaming, and she wondered if one of the villagers had been hit. She knew it couldn't have been that bad, considering the fact that they were only pebbles.

Then the ground began to sake as a high pitched roar thundered through the Cliff side, echoing off of the rocky walls. Vela froze her heart beating at an unhealthily rapid pace. She had heard that sound many times before, usually quieter, sometimes much louder. Her heart was bursting inside of her chest, and she could hear her breath turning into rasps.

She knew what she was about to do was dangerous, but she had to be sure that what she had heard was what she thought it wise. She carefully let down the mental barrier she had kept up for so long, and allowed her conscious to unfold across the land. She let it unfold slowly, just in case something or someone recognized her being. She opened it up across the village, looking for the familiar feeling of the beast she was looking for.

She was at the edge of the village, or at least she thought she was, and she was beginning to calm down, thinking that she had misheard the roar. But then something flickered in her unfolding conscious, it felt like fire in her mind, and she quickly flinched away, fearful that someone had recognized her. But then she realized that it wasn't the fire of recognition, but rather the fire of magic, and great amounts of it.

Her heart began to pound again as she realized what kind of magic it was. She unfolded her mind slowly and carefully, towards the spot of magic she had felt. She felt something brush against her mind, and she quickly opened up her eyes, bringing her conscious back to her, but it was too late. Whatever had sensed her was in her mind.

_Hello, _said a dark female voice in her mind. She flinched at the sudden touch she felt on her conscious, the feel of another great beast like herself.

_Do not fret, dragon. _Said the voice _if you help me escape, I will not report you to the red dragons._

Vela gulped. She wasn't sure whether to respond or not, but she quickly decided that she might as well see what the creature wanted, and who it was.

_Who are you? _She asked, trying to sound confident.

_My name is Kyragosa, _said the voice.

_A blue dragon, _said Vela _what do you want from a black dragon? How could I possibly help you?_

_Oh, so you are a black dragon, _said the voice, followed by a short snicker.

Vela cursed herself for blowing her cover.

_Don't fret, black dragon. So, what is your name? _Asked the voice.

_Velathelina, _said Vela as an ice cold shudder rippled through her spine, making her gasp in shock.

_How odd, _said the voice _I would never suspect a black dragon to have such a name, especially such a young one. You do know what it means, don't you, Velathelina?_

Another shudder went down Vela's spine from the sound of her mind.

_Yes, I do, _she hissed _I__ prefer Vela, by the way. Now, what do you want, Kyragosa?_

The voice snickered and said _these pesky twilight people are keeping me prisoner. I suppose I could escape eventually, after much thinking, but I prefer not to waste time. You are a black dragon, you could help._

_Not as well as you think, _said Vela.

_Explain. _Demanded the voice.

_I'm not corrupted, I live at my own free will, the old gods do not haunt me. _Said Vela.

_Ah, that explains the name, _said the voice. _Well, a little at least. Still, you will help me escape, and I will keep your little secret. Agreed?_

_Agreed. Said Vela reluctantly._

_Good, _said the voice _come at night, with reinforcements if you wish. Leave me now, I must make plans._

Vela almost fell the ground as the pressure on her mind was released, and the other conscious had left her mind. She regained her control and froze, half from surprise and half from worry. She had just agreed to go into a camp, full of twilight followers. She agreed to save a blue dragon. She had now weapons, none of use that is, and she had no plan what so ever.

She had just pushed herself into a whirlpool of trouble.

* * *

**Wow, this took me longer than it should have. And the whole blue dragon bit was completely unplanned, but then again, so were Daena and the gang. Well, this should be interesting… for you and for me. I'll update soon, sort of soon at least. Well… read on, I guess.**


	9. Help

Vela stood there for a few more moments, still weak from the withdrawal of Kyragosa's conscious. It had been over a century since she had allowed someone else into her mind. For so long she had kept a mental wall up, guarding her thoughts from everyone. But now, since she had finally let it go down, she felt weak inside, vulnerable. She couldn't remember the last time she had exposed herself in that way, and it took her a few moments for her to regain the ability to walk away.

She turned back to walk the way she had come, towards the stream in the woods. Her eyes were pointing straight, but her mind wasn't looking. Her body was on auto pilot, while she was hidden away in a fold in her mind, thinking about the new situation she was in.

She had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to help the blue dragon escape the twilight camp. Sure, she was a black dragon, but she was sane, and the people in the camps were probably uncaring towards her because of the recent death of Deathwing.

She took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. She had to help the dragon, and not just because she didn't want her to reveal her secret to the red dragons. She felt honor bound to help another dragon in need, and she would never forgive herself if she didn't. Especially since she was imprisoned by some of the people she hated most; the followers of none other than Deathwing himself. At least, they did.

Now that her father was dead, Vela wasn't sure what his remaining followers would do. They would have to find a way to escape the red dragons, and others who were opposed to Deathwing. She wasn't sure if they were under the old gods influence or not, so they could be harmless or extremely dangerous.

She reached the stream and quickly hopped over it, not even taking any notice of it. She was wrapped up in a vortex of thoughts in her mind, uncaring to what happened in the outside world. She was rolling around the thought in her head of somehow tricking the rest of the gang into somehow going to the village. She quickly threw that idea away, thinking that it would be pretty hard to trick them, especially Daena, into going in a twilight encampment with a roaring dragon.

And she knew that it would probably end with her secret somehow being revealed, which she didn't want. It was bad enough that Grue knew, she was lucky he had agreed to keep quiet, but if the rest of them found out, she wasn't too sure what they would do. She labeled them all as friends, even Kaijin, but she wasn't sure yet how they would react to knowing that she was actually a dragon.

She had until nightfall to figure out a plan. She looked up at the sky and saw that it had already fallen down in the sky, not far from the horizon, and she guessed that it was around 5. That meant she had exactly two hours to get everything sorted out. She would need to be extremely stealthy, and she would need to make sure the others didn't see her go.

It would be hard to keep Grue from noticing, and she began to wonder if she should tell him. That way, if she died or got captured, at least one person would know where she was. And she might even be able to get his help, if he was up for it. He had looked pretty shaken from the whole Dalgris thing when she had last seen him. She rolled the idea around in her head, but decided it would be a bad idea to bring him along since he looked nothing like a twilight goblin.

She jumped over the stream, landing on the mossy bank on the other side. She quickly went back to her fast walk pace, and began to think again. She was good at formulating plans, and she had a good amount of time to think of one. But she found that her mind was blank, and she realized she had no idea what she was even doing.

Why did that dumb blue dragon have to put her in such a hard position? She had even told Vela that she would be able to escape on her own eventually, so why couldn't she just wait instead? Why did Vela have to be dragged into this, of all people? She had enough trouble already, but now she had to stroll into a twilight encampment, of all places, and somehow free a dragon. She had a humongous headache from all of this stress, and she couldn't wait for this to be over with.

She was contemplating whether or not she should tell the twilight followers that she was a black dragon. She would have a better chance of gaining their trust, but she would also be putting herself out there as a giant beacon to all of the other dragons nearby, if she had to change into her dragon form. She was pretty certain that they wouldn't believe her if she just said that she was a black dragon.

She decided to scratch the idea. She would just have to pretend to be a twilight commoner. This would be easy for her, since she could use magic to make some clothes for this. It would only require a small amount of energy and magic for her, whereas it would take a lot of energy and magic for a regular mortal to succeed in completing such a spell.

As she picked up her pace, shifting from a slow jog to a full out run, she began to smell the savory scents of roasted tundra boar in the distance, it filled her with energy, making her run a little faster with each step. She realized now that she was extremely hungry, and she could feel a growl growing in her throat. She held it back, just barely. The smell go stronger and stronger until she could hear people talking, just faintly at first, and then everything got louder and louder until she was sure she'd be at the crash site in seconds.

She began to slow down as the clearing came into view, and she emerged into the clearing, not even panting. She took in everything that had happened. It seemed that Daena had set up camp next to the carriage. There were four tents, each just big enough to fit a person, surrounding a small pit which Vela guessed was the fire pit. There was wood stacked on it, but no fire going yet. The carriage was as it she had left it, only Kaijin was working on the wheel, humming some odd song that Vela couldn't understand. Grue was sitting by the fire pit, wearing spectacles and reading one of his many books.

Vela had no idea how all of this had been set up in the amount of time she had been gone, but she knew that goblins were capable of great things, especially when it came to building. She trotted over to where Grue sat, and he only noticed her when she had blocked out his reading light.

He looked up; seeming slightly confused, and then asked "No luck with the hunting?"

"Oh, I had a great amount of luck." She said "I just found so much, that I'm going to need some help carrying it back here."

Grue pointed at Kaijin, who was still working, and said "Ask Kaijin, I'm sure he could help you."

Kaijin looked up and asked "You be needin help with somethin mon?"

Vela shook her head and said "No, Kaijin, you should keep working on the carriage," she looked back at Grue, annoyed at the fact that he hadn't gotten the message that she needed to speak to him, and said "You can help. You need a job anyway. Reading won't help us in this situation."

"But I'm reading the carriage manual, I'm helping Kaijin fix the carriage but telling him how to fix the wheel!" said Grue.

"I can't read mon!" yelled Kaijin over the loud noise of his hammer.

Vela sighed and face palmed forehead. "Look, I need YOUR help. I need YOU to come with me so YOU can help me with something IMPORTANT!"

"But Kaijin needs my help…" muttered Grue.

Vela sighed and yanked Grue off the ground, making him drop his book.

"Hey!" he yelled "That was hard back special edition!"

"It was a manual GRUE! A MANUAL!" yelled Vela.

Grue opened his mouth, but shut quickly, seeming to think better than to argue with Vela. He reluctantly trudged through the muddy ground, Vela keeping a firm grip on his shoulder. Once they got into the forest, she went a little faster, until she was basically dragging Grue behind her. He moaned and groaned, but she ignored him for the most part.

Once she couldn't hear Kaijin anymore, she stopped and let go of Grue. He dropped to the ground panting.

"What are you panting for?" she snapped "I did all the running!"

Grue caught his breath and said "When you're being dragged in the mud for two miles straight, it takes some energy to actually hold on."

Vela rolled her eyes and said "Look, there's something very important I need to tell you."

"What's so important about meat?" asked Grue.

Vela sighed and asked "You read all those books and you still can't tell when it's not about the stinking meat!" she sighed, regaining her composure and controlling her anger "Look, there is no meat. But there is something else I found."

"There's no meat? Bummer. I was hoping to have some roast boar tonight." said Grue.

"Focus, Grue, focus!" snapped Vela.

"All right, all right!" wailed Grue "What's so important that you had to drag me all the way out here?"

Vela lowered her voice as she began "I was out, enjoying the day, when I came upon a cliff. I looked down to see a small village. I thought it was just any ordinary village, perhaps even the village we were going to, but it wasn't. It was a twilight camp."

Grue gasped and interrupted, saying, "A twilight encampment? Crap, it's going to be hard to get past those guys on the road."

"Just shut up and listen!" snapped Vela. Grue sat down and Vela went on "Anyway, I heard this strange noise, and I decided to open up my mind to see if I could sense any strange creatur-"

"Wait, you can sense creatures with your mind? Amazing! I've only read abou-" Grue stopped as he saw Vela's glare and said sorry quickly before quieting down.

"Anyway, I opened up my mind and discovered that there was a blue dragon being held captive there." Grue was about to say something when Vela hushed him with a movement of her hand. "We spoke to each other, and now I have to rescue her or else she'll reveal my secret to the red dragons."

"Wait, how cans she reveal you're secret if she is imprisoned?" asked Grue.

"She's says she'll escape either way, she just prefers to get out sooner. And if I don't help her, when she does escape she will tell my secret." Vela explained.

Grue nodded, taking in the information, and asked "So what are you planning to do?"

"I'm going to sneak into the twilight camp and pretend to be a commoner." said Vela.

"Why not just go in as a dragon?" asked Grue "Wouldn't they let you do anything then?"

Vela shook her head and said "Every dragon in Northrend would know I was here. Besides, now that Deathwing's dead, I don't know how they would react to me being a black dragon."

Grue nodded and asked "So what do you need me to do?"

Vela stumbled back a little, shocked. "Help me?" she asked "You want to help me?"

"Yeah," said Grue casually "You're going to need some help if you want to succeed."

"Well okay then," said Vela, still shocked. "Let's get going."

Grue nodded and they both stood. Grue motioned for Vela to lead the way and she led them further into the forest, where she remembered the cliff to be. She smiled to herself. She had gained a friend, one that knew her secret. Grue was willing to help her, and that was saying a lot. He had disliked her at first, and now they had formed a friendship, of a sort.

She led them on, going deeper and deeper into the woods as the gray sky of Northrend turned into a dark midnight black.


	10. Rescuers

Vela jumped over the stream, nearly slipping on the mud on the opposite bank. She stopped, panting, and looked back to where Grue was. She looked back, barely having to squint with her night vision, and saw that he was far behind her. She scowled in the night, wondering if she had made a good decision of bringing him with her.

They had been traveling for about a half an hour now, and the sun was long past set. Vela had found the journey easy, she would have been there by now if she hadn't had to stop every five minutes and wait for Grue to catch up. Grue, being a goblin, seemed to be finding that running was not his thing, especially when running for so long.

Vela watched as he stopped at the other side of the stream, panting. He was drenched in sweat, bent over trying to catch his breath.

"Careful," she said "If you pant any louder you might wake up the cultists and warn them that we're coming."

Grue caught his breath and stood up, frowning. "Yeah, you're a black dragon all right. Same sarcastic humor I remember from the Undermines."

Vela rolled her eyes and asked "What, beginning to wonder if I really was a dragon?"

"No," said Grue "Well, a little."

"Need me to transform into a dragon?" asked Vela.

"Nah, I'm good." said Grue "I prefer not to be shocked too much tonight."

"Good choice," said Vela. "You would be shocked…" she added to herself. "Let's get going," she said "Kyragosa will be waiting for me; it's past sundown and I don't want to be even later."

"Is that the name of the dragon?" asked Grue.

"Yes," said Vela. "Now, let's get a move on."

Grue looked down at the water, and then looked back at her, expectantly. At first Vela was confused, but after a second or two she realized what he was getting at. She sighed in annoyance.

"Do you need help getting across the stream?" she asked, irritated.

He smiled sheepishly and said "Yeah, kind of."

She sighed and hopped across the stream, barely taking a second. Again, she almost slipped on the mud, spraying it onto her boots and making her outfit even grimier. She grunted in annoyance, and wished she could stop and bathe. She was starting to hate being in her own skin.

She looked at Grue and started to formulate a plan in her head as to how to get him across the stream. She had no idea why he couldn't jump it, even with his short legs. It was literally less than two feet wide, and so shallow that you could see the tiny holes on a pebble. She shook her head. Goblins had always been a mystery to her, and especially Grue.

"Ok," she said "I'm going to fling you across the stream. Make sure to land on your feet, or else you're going to get a muddy surprise."

Grue gulped, looking slightly worried. Vela knelt down next to him and picked him up by the waist. He was surprisingly light, but then again that could have been her super strength. He tensed as she pulled him back, aiming for a mossy spot on the opposite bank. She had flung lots of boulders into the air as an exercise when she was in training at the black dragon camps, but then again, they had always ended up smashing into little bits once they reached the target. She shoved this information out of her head and aimed, hoping she didn't put too much force into it this time.

She made sure she aimed perfectly, and then pulled Grue back as far as she could, and threw him across the bank. He rocketed through the air, over ten feet up in the sky. She watched as he seemed to stop midway in the air, then plummet to the ground. He let out a high pitched screech and landed with a thud on the mossy spot Vela had aimed for.

"Yes!" she said as she hopped across the stream "One hundred and fifty years since practicing and I still got it!"

She did a mini victory dance, which was her wriggling around like a lunatic with a huge grin on her face, and then stopped abruptly as she realized that Grue was giving her the oddest look. It reminded her of the face she had given him when he had refused to try and hop across the stream. To her, it meant: Seriously? Is it really that big of a deal?

She regained her composure, her cheeks slightly red with embarrassment. He gave her the same look for a few moments before sighing, and then his face went blank. Just when Vela was about to ask him what he was doing, he let a high pitched shriek.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" he yelped as he jumped off the moss.

As he rubbed the dust off of his pants and began to run around in circles, shrieking over and over again. Vela raised an eyebrow, extremely confused. Had she really flung him that hard? She couldn't have, otherwise he would have been lying motionless on the ground, despite a moan or two, crippled.

As his shrieks quieted and he began to stop pacing she looked at him with the most weirded out face she could think of and asked "What's the matter with you?"

He looked up at her, his eyes seemed to be tearing, and muttered something so low she couldn't here.

She cupped a hand around her ear and said "Speak up, I can't hear you!"

He muttered the same thing, again too low for her to hear.

"For titans sake speak up!" Vela nearly yelled.

"I've got a thorn in my ass, ok!?" yelled Grue.

For a few moments, Vela stood there, her face expressionless. Then her cheeks turned a bright red, visible even in the dark night, as she began to laugh as hard as she could. She doubled over, hugging herself as she tried to contain her amusement. She had truly never expected to hear that from Grue or anyone in general. Grue stood in front of her, his cheeks red with embarrassment and a little bit of anger at how Vela was acting.

Finally Vela was able to contain her laughter to a degree, her loud laughs turned into little snorts. She stood up, brushing some dust from her clothes, and looked at Grue. She laughed a little bit more, finding his cherry red face amusing, before she stopped. She could tell Grue didn't like this, despite how funny she found it.

"Ok, ok, I'm done." She said, stifling a snort.

"Finally," said Grue "Cause it hurts, and I need someone to take it out."

"What?!" asked Vela "No way. You're on your own."

"Look, I can't reach back there, so I'm going to need some help with this," said Grue "Besides, if I'm on my own with this, then you're on your own with saving the dragon."

"Seriously?" asked Vela, not liking where this was going at all.

Grue nodded and firmly said "Seriously."

Vela frowned and reluctantly said, "Turn around. Let's just get this over with."

Grue nodded and turned around. Vela saw a huge piece of wood sticking out of his butt, and she wondered how on earth he had managed to get it stuck in his butt. She gulped, and leaned down so that she was eye level with him. She put up a shaking hand, and tried to move it towards the piece of wood. She closed her eyes, wishing that she didn't have to do this.

"Hurry up already!" said Grue impatiently "Leaning over like this is starting to hurt."

"Oh, give me a break!" said Vela as she grabbed the piece of wood and quickly yanked it out.

She fell backwards, the piece of wood still in her hand. She was panting; surprised at the effort it had taken her to pull it out. The piece of wood was still in her hand, mere inches from her face. At the very tip was a drop of blood, ready to splash down at any second. She quickly threw the piece of wood away from her, not wanting to get Grue's butt blood on her.

Remembering Grue, she glanced up at him. He was still crouching, not moving at all.

"Grue…?" she asked, wondering what was wrong.

"I'm fine," he said in a shaky voice.

He stood abruptly and walked behind a nearby tree, concealing him from sight. Vela raised an eyebrow, confused. She was about to ask him what he was doing, but before she could, and earsplitting screech rang through the forest. It went on for another second before stopping. It was then that Grue stepped out from behind the tree, his face expressionless.

He walked past her, into the field, towards the cliff, without saying a word. Vela stood up quickly and ran towards him, not wanting him to walk off of the cliff and plummet to his death. That would be a sad way to lose her only helper. She only had to jog a bit to catch up to him, since he was going a steady walking pace.

They were in the fields now, the tall grass's going up to Vela's thigh, and completely covering Grue. She giggled at the sight of him, a dark green bald head sticking out of the ground. He kept spitting pieces of grass out of his mouth as he ran into the stalks, knocking off the seeds. Yet he had a stubborn face, as if he refused to stop walking for some unknown reason.

There were crickets out, and they made a soft chirping noise that calmed Vela, despite the crazy thing she was about to do. Every once and a while her thoughts would drift back to the camp, where Kaijin and Daena were. They were probably waiting for them, not knowing that they could be dead. But they weren't, at least, not yet.

Vela hoped that they would be okay, that she and Grue would make it out alive. She had no idea what she was going to do, and how this Kyragosa person would react when and if they got her out. For all Vela knew she might roast them on sight. She doubted it, but anything could be possible. She was, after all, a black dragon. And not just any regular one, either. She was special, and Kyragosa knew it.

Vela looked ahead in the darkness, and thought she could see the orange Cliffside not far ahead. She smiled, ever so slightly. She just wanted to get this over with. She wanted to finish this and get out of Northrend, far from any other dragons. She had never planned for any of this to happen, she had never expected to gain an ally that's for sure.

But here she was, willingly going into a twilight camp, with a friend, of a sort, by her side. What would happen if she failed? What would happen to Grue? Vela was fine with dying, she could take it. But Grue? He had his whole life ahead of him. And for it to all end so abruptly just because Vela dragged him into this mess? Vela wasn't sure if she was okay with that.

She looked down at the little goblin, his head starting to become more visible as the grass thinned out. She saw a strong face of determination, and she knew he wouldn't back down. She wondered what had made him so committed to this, what had caused him to be so willing to help her. He had only met her like what, a few days ago or something? But then again, mortals had always confused Vela. She never would understand any of them, no matter how hard she tried.

Vela slowed to a complete stop as they reached the edge of the cliff, and Grue did so as well. He still had the same stubborn face, and it made Vela want to giggle. He stood right next to her, which was at the very edge of the cliff, and she thought she saw a little speck of uncertainty in his eyes.

A bit of rocks crumbled beneath his feet, and he quickly jumped back, making a pile of red orange dust come up, engulfing him. He coughed and spat, jumping all around as he tried to wave the dust out of his eyes. Vela stifled a laugh, knowing that it would upset Grue. Finally the dust settled back down onto the ground, and Grue looked up at her, his eyes slightly red from the dust getting in them.

"Not even in the camp and I've already gotten hurt twice," he muttered as he brushed some of the dust from his pants, which now had an orange tint to them.

Vela giggled slightly, and Grue glared at her from the corner of his eye.

"Sorry," she said "I can't help it. You look so funny,"

He grunted and looked up at her, the glare gone from his eyes. He now had a serious face, and he looked as if he were waiting for orders.

"So what now?" he asked.

"Oh, right," said Vela. She thought for a moment, not really sure what to do. "I suppose I should contact Kyragosa and ask her what she wants me to do. I think she has a plan." She finally said.

"Wait, you can contact her?" asked Grue. Vela nodded "How?" he asked.

"Through my mind." Said Vela "I can enter any one's mind whenever I want; I just have to be careful about it. Kyragosa and I contacted through are minds, that's how I got into this mess."

"So you could have read my mind any time you wanted?" asked Grue. Vela nodded. "And you didn't?"

Vela casually shrugged and said "I had not needed to do so. Besides, it's considered extremely rude to do so, even if it is for a very important purpose."

"Can you control people?" asked Grue.

"If I focus very hard, but it takes up a lot of strength and energy, and it usually kills the person who tried." said Vela "Besides, it's rude, like I said before."

"What else can you do?" asked Grue.

"Different things," said Vela, not wanting to give away any secrets.

"Like what?" asked Grue.

"That, my friend is something for me to know and for you to find out." said Vela "Besides, it's a dragon thing. You don't need to know."

Grue grunted, obviously wanting to ask more questions, but he didn't. "Just contact the dragon so we can get this over with."

Vela nodded, and closed her eyes. She slowly put down her mental barriers, wary of anyone who would try and get into her mind. She was careful, extremely careful; she was in her most vulnerable state when she let down her barriers. Anyone could take advantage of that weakness, and kill her from her mind. As the last barrier went down, she felt weak and exposed, just as she ad when Kyragosa had first contacted her.

She began to expand her conscience over the area, slowly at first, then a little faster as eh got used to it. As she went into the twilight camp, she touched many sleeping minds of the cultists, even catching glimpse of their dreams. She drifted over them lightly, not wanting to wake them from their slumber. The last thing she wanted to do was alert the enemy that she was coming.

She drifted slightly faster, looking for the familiar feel of Kyragosa. She would be able to recognize her mind easily, since she would most likely be awake and would also be a dragon, one of the easiest things to feel in her mind state.

Suddenly there was an immense pressure on her mind, it was a like a hot dagger being stabbed into her. It was another mind, and it was infiltrating her thoughts. At first she thought it was a cultist, and that she had been found, but the conscience seemed to be making itself comfortable in her mind, as if it was supposed to be there. The pressure slowly disappeared, and Vela was able to read the mind and find out who it was.

She wasn't surprised to find out that the invading mind was actually Kyragosa.

_"I came, Kyragosa. What do you wish me to do?"_ she asked.

_"Ah, hello Velathelina."_ the name sent shudders up Vela's spine, but she didn't argue with the blue dragon as to how her name should be said _"I've been waiting for you. I knew you'd come."_

_"Of course I did,"_ said Vela _"I'm honor bound. Now, what is it that you wish me to do?"_

_"Ah, yes, of course,"_ said Kyragosa_ "I have been thinking of a plan since we first contacted. I believe I have a good way to go about this,"_

_"What is it, then?"_ asked Vela, getting impatient.

_"Patience, darling."_ said Kyragosa. _"As I was saying, I have a very good way of going on with this whole rescuing thing. Listen closely, I won't be repeating myself."_ She paused, then went on "_If you go down the Cliffside, you will find that the cliff will level down into the camp. You will be able to jump don from there, if you're careful, and sneak through the camp. The only guards in the camp right now are at the gates, and they won't be bothering you."_

"_Is that all?"_ asked Vela.

_"For now,"_ said Kyragosa _"There will be more, later. Just do as I already said, I will be watching you through your conscience."_

_"Ok then,"_ said Vela "I'll meet up with you once I'm in the camp."

Without replying, Kyragosa withdrew from the contact, and Vela felt limp and weak. Her legs buckled beneath her, and it took her a second to regain her strength. She had forgotten how much energy it took to contact someone with her mind. She breathed in deeply, trying to regain some of her energy, and slowly got up. She wobbled slightly, but she was able to maintain her balance, mostly that is.

She opened her eyes, which had been shut tight the entire time, and saw that Grue was watching her, a tint of alarm in his eyes. She shook her head, clearing her mind of all weakness, and looked at him.

"I'm fine," she said "Let's get going. Kyragosa told me of a way to get into the camp."

Grue nodded, and Vela began to walk alongside the cliff, going to the right. Her mind was still weak from the lingering presence of Kyragosa, who was watching her mind from afar, but she didn't tell Grue any of this. She didn't want him to know of some of her secrets, and she definitely didn't want him to know how to weaken her.

They went down the hillside at a steady pace, mostly because Vela had lost so much energy. She would still be able to rescue Kyragosa, but it would be more difficult. She was building up the energy slowly, taking it out from her reserves.

Grue walked by her side, not noticing her slow pace. He was looking forward, and it seemed that his thoughts were elsewhere. His face was blank, expressionless.

Just as Kyragosa had said, the Cliffside began to get steeper and steeper, going downwards abruptly. Vela could now see the camp more clearly, and she was shocked at how big it was. She had never been in a camp, but she knew they were almost never this big. She began to wonder what was going on there, and why exactly Kyragosa was there.

Grue also noticed the camp, and he began to get even closer to the edge, peering down at the camp at the same time. He eventually got so close that Vela had to pull him back, knowing that one more step would bring him falling over the cliff side.

"Watch it!" she whispered, close enough to the camp that if she spoke in a regular tone someone would hear "Falling to your death is not very pleasant! I might be a dragon, but if you fell up here, you'd have face planted the dirt by the time I got my wings undone!"

"Sorry," whispered Grue as he went back to where he was, next to Vela, and a good two feet from the edge of the cliff.

The Cliffside got increasingly steeper until they were only ten feet or so from the camp. Vela was shocked at how the cultists had made it so easy for someone to get into their camp. They usually made it much harder, with spiked gates and trenches.

"This is it," said Vela as she knelt down, ready to jump into the camp "Let's go down."

She looked at Grue and saw that his facial expression couldn't be clearer: That's not happening.

She sighed, irritated and said "It's only ten feet! Come on, it will be easy!"

"I'm barely two feet tall!" said Grue "There's no way!"

Vela sighed and tried to think of something. She couldn't think of any other way to get him down there, and she wondered if bringing him with her had been a waste of time.

"Look, it's either you jump down, or you stay there and wait for me to come back," she said.

"I'll stay." He said.

"Really?" asked Vela "I bring you all the way out here for you to stay up there and not help me?"

"Really," he said "But look, I can help you out. Just give me a sec,"

Grue began to rummage through his coat pocket looking for something. Vela was both confused and curious, wondering what the goblin had up his sleeve. Finally he pulled out two shiny metal things, with little holes in both of them and an antenna sticking out of each.

"Look," he said as he handed one to Vela "I can keep in contact with you while you're in the camp, warn you about stuff and what not."

Vela took the shiny metal thing and put it in her pocket. "Thanks," she said "I'll keep in contact and tell you when I'm getting out."

Grue nodded. "I'll be going down now, keep a lookout for anything weird." said Vela.

Grue nodded and said "I will." Vela began to slip down off of the cliff and into the camp and he quickly added, "Good luck."

Vela hit the ground with a small thud, and she hoped that no one had heard her. She was behind a black tent, with no idea where she was.

She quickly opened up her mental contact and called for the still lingering Kyragosa _"Kyragosa!"_ she called _"I'm in the camp! I need your help!"_

_"I'm here,"_ said Kyragosa _"Good, you've made it very far."_

_"How do I get to where you're being captured?"_ asked Vela.

_"Slow down,"_ said Kyragosa _"I'm going to take over your mind and guide you there."_

"_Do you have to do that?"_ asked Vela _"Can't you just tell me where to go?"_

_"No,"_ said Kyragosa _"There are too many traps along the way."_ She sighed and said _"Relax, it will make it easier."_

Vela gulped, not liking this at all. But she did as she was told, and relaxed. She let go of every muscle, retreating into her mind. As she did so, she felt Kyragosa's mind expand upon her own, going deep into her mind. Her conscience pushed Vela's deeper back, until she was only a small fragment lying in a corner of her mind. She could feel Kyragosa taking control of her motor skills, taking away Vela's ability to move.

She could feel herself moving, but she had no idea where. All she knew was that Kyragosa was taking her away, bringing her towards the prison she was held in. she felt weak and vulnerable, knowing that at any moment Kyragosa could kill her. She was just a little tiny piece of her mind now; the rest was under Kyragosa's control. She couldn't see, Kyragosa had taken her sight as well.

Before she knew it Kyragosa was letting go, moving out of Vela's mind. Vela quickly expanded, going back into her body. She opened her eyes, a little weak from what had occurred.

In front of her was a huge cage, at least twenty feet up in the air. Inside the cage was a blue dragon, slim and young, with long horns and sky blue scales. The dragon's eyelids were half open, showing how tired it was, but it was looking at Vela.

_"Kyragosa,"_ Vela whispered in her mind _"How do you wish me to free you?"_

The dragon in front of her breathed in deeply, and Kyragosa replied calmly "_Break the lock. Its flimsy metal, it shouldn't be that hard."_

Vela looked around the cage and spotted a small black lock hanging from the door of the cage. She walked over to it, careful not to be too loud, and touched it. The metal was cold, not being touched in a long time, and she quickly yanked the lock off. The door swung open, making a slight creaking sound.

_"Come inside…"_ whispered Kyragosa _"I need your help getting into my other form… I need energy… please…"_

The dragon's voice was weak, shaking unsteadily. Vela climbed into the cage and went up against the dragon's side. She put two hands on the dragon's side and began to channel her magic into her. She felt Kyragosa's mind join hers, taking in the magic and transforming into a mortal. She kept channeling until the dragon had changed into a high elf, collapsing onto the floor.

"Thank you…" whispered the mortal Kyragosa "I owe you greatly… we must go… now…"

Kyragosa was a high elf, with blue glowing eyes and long, raven black hair, pulled back into a high tail. She wore a blue robe, studded with sapphires.

Vela knelt by the weak dragon and helped her up onto her feet, the blue dragon wobbling back and forth. They made it to the entrance and quickly walked through. It was then that all hell broke loose.

Kyragosa's escape had triggered an alarm system, making the most god awful sound. It echoed through the canyon, making sure everyone heard it within a mile radius. Cultists began to emerge from their tents, confused and tired. Then they saw the two non-cultists, and their faces turned to anger.

They began to surround them, making it impossible for them to run. Shadow magic danced on their fingers, threatening to be shot at them. Vela felt her throat tighten, not knowing how they would get out of this. She looked at Kyragosa, wondering if the blue dragon could fight them off, but the limp elf looked like she was about to collapse.

The cultists got closer and closer, their group getting bigger. Vela knew there was only one way they would get out of this, and she didn't like it at all. She couldn't bear to do it. She couldn't even think of it.

"Change…" said Kyragosa.

"I can't!" said Vela "The red dragons will sense me.

"I can take care of that…" said Kyragosa "Just change… if your name speaks the truth than you can save us…"

Vela gulped "Must I?" she asked.

"Yes…" said Kyragosa "I will block the signal… just change…"

Vela breathed in deeply. She knew what had to be done. She had to change into her dragon form, she had to save them. It was the only way. She went deep into her mind, where the heart of her power lay. She focused on it, and began to channel it.

She could feel her bones shifting and her body morphing, and the slight touch of Kyragosa's mind as she blocked her signal. She could feel herself getting big, much bigger than she had remembered being. The magic flowed out of her, making her even bigger, she was full of magic, magic she didn't remember having. All of her bones shifted into place, and she opened two cat like eyes.

She was humongous, much larger than she had been the last time she had transformed into a dragon. She was as tall as the cliff, maybe a little taller. Her scales were beautiful obsidian black, reflecting the moonlight. She had two long horns growing out of her head, both a foot thick and extremely long. She had a long dragon snout and a long clubbed tail which was rapped around her feet. She had grown, a _lot_. She even thought she might have been as big as deathwing, if not bigger.

She could feel power, power she hadn't had before, well up inside her. Suddenly all of the rage and anger she had felt over the years came boiling out, as a flame that rippled through the night sky and lit up the camp. Frightened cultists ran past her, trying to save themselves. But there was no outrunning her flame. Her flame killed all, burnt everything in its path. She was powerful beyond limits; she felt that she could do anything she wished of.

She let out a triumphant roar as she watched the camp light up in bright red flames. The roar echoed through all of Northrend, making the very ground quake. The cliff began to crumble, and a landslide came down. It covered most of the tents, but Vela didn't care. No, right now she was Velathelina, the black dragon.

All of her anger, all of her rage, of being locked up all her life, tortured by her people, tortured by the red dragons, was spilling out in that roar. All of it was pouring out of her, and no one was left unaffected. She was boiling with rage, and she was taking it out on some of the people she despised most: the twilights hammer.

All of the anger at her father was aimed at them, everything. She was a true monstrosity, a terror, worse than Deathwing ever was. If they thought he was bad, they had no idea what she could do.

But her rage began to ebb as she realized what she was doing. She slowly, slowly, began to return to a sense of reality. She could not become what her father was, she never could. She refused it. And that little piece of information was all that kept her from going insane. She went back to her conscience, and began to go back to her mortal form. Her bones shifted until she was no longer Velathelina, the raging dragon. She was merely a young blood elf named Vela, who collapsed onto the ground, immediately going unconscious.

_**Dear Readers: Wow! This ended up way longer than I expected! Hope it didn't bore you. I can't wait for the next chapter, you're going to learn something very special about Vela, or should I say Velathelina? Well, hope you enjoyed the chapter! It's the longest chapter I've written on fanfiction!**_


	11. Secrets

Vela was surrounded by never ending darkness. She wasn't sure where she was, if where she was could be considered a place. She was cold, colder than she had been in Northrend, and her head spun. No matter where she went, if she was even moving, the darkness always followed. It stretched endlessly in every direction, and there was no escaping it. She was surrounded by it, consumed by it.

She could feel pressure on her mind, pressure from a coming head ache. At first it was normal, but the pain slowly got worse and worse until it was practically unbearable. She screamed, but no sound came out. She tore at her hair, as if that would do any good. She felt trapped and helpless in her own mind as the pain consumed her. She felt like crushing her skull, as if ending her life was better than enduring the pain.

She could feel reality slipping away, if there was any in the dark place she was in. her common sense was being chipped away at, and she could feel her saneness slipping. All there was in her mind was pain, endless pain. It never stopped worsening, and with every ounce more she received she slipped more and more away from herself.

She opened her mouth to scream, wanting to rip through the never ending darkness, but her voice was still nowhere to be found. Slowly, the pain consumed her, devouring her from the inside out. She tried to fight it, with whatever strength she had left, but she was powerless to the inevitable.

Eventually she gave up, letting the pain break through and begin nibbling at whatever it hadn't consumed already. She felt herself dying slowly, being corrupted, in a way. She lay there, letting the rest of her sanity be devoured by the pain. Her last thought before she was devoured was simple.

She whispered it quietly in her mind "Oh titans, just let this be over with."

And with that, the madness consumed her entirely, without a shred of sanity left.

Vela burst out of her sleep, panting heavily. And immense heat covered her entire body, making her hot even in the coldness of Northrend. She was sweating all over, her clothes drenched in the sticky liquid. She quickly shoved the blanket that was on her off, trying to get as cool as possible.

She felt like jumping into an icy lake, which was saying something since she was cold blooded. The heat was still all over her, but it had lessened, cooled down. Her panting slowed as well as she recovered from the awful dream she had received. Her head throbbed, but not as much as it had in the dream.

As her panting slowed to deep breathing, she began to look around. She was in the forest, in a camp of sorts. She was on a small blanket, with a little pillow. There was a fire pit not far from her bed, the coals till red from the flames. She scooted away a few feet, wanting to get as cool as she could.

A breeze went by, ruffling her hair. She looked around and saw that she was in a small clearing, there were three other make shift beds, two of them filled and one empty. She heard gentle snoring, making her calm down a bit. But her heart still raced, threatening to burst out of her chest.

She forced it to slow down, clearing her mind so that she could think. Her mind was blurry, like a cloud of fog had drifted over it. She was trying to remember what had happened the night before. Her memory was as blurry as her mind, scattered around in pieces that she had to organize.

All that she could remember at the time was that she had morphed into her dragon form, and that something had happened, something big. But the rest of her memory was scattered into little pieces, and at the moment she couldn't put them together.

She rubbed her head on instinct; trying to get rid of the head ache that had settled in. She shifted around in her bed and groaned. Her body was sore all over, not a muscle left untouched by pain.

As much as her muscles protested, she forced herself to get up. She needed to find out what had happened last night, and she was hoping to get her memory back by going for a walk. She wanted to stretch her muscles, even though they were sore. She felt like she had been trapped in a small box for days, and that she had finally found her way out. She had all of this energy stuffed up inside of her, and she wanted to use it, despite her muscles protest.

As she got up she noticed that her outfit had changed. Instead of black leather pants and a black button up, she wore a black battle skirt, a black vest, knee high black boats, and a black cloak covered her back and most of her front. She reached up at her head and felt two small horns sticking out of her forehead, near her temple.

"Huh," she said "I guess that's where they headache came from."

Her outfit reminded her of the clothes the female dragon aspects wore. In fact, it reminded her a lot of it. She was still confused as to how her outfit changed, but she guessed that it had to do with the events of the previous night, which she still could not remember.

She stretched her arms up into the sky and wasn't surprised when she heard a few pops from her muscles. She stretched the rest of her body as best as she could, taking away from some of her soreness, and walked over to the two sleeping people still in the camp. She went over to the first, and largest, and peered down at the face.

It was a sleeping Kyragosa, still in her mortal form. Her hair was in tangles, all messed up from sleeping, and there were drool stains on her pillow. She was snoring, not as loud as Kaijin did, but enough to be annoying. She was sound asleep, from the looks of it, and she showed no signs of waking up anytime soon.

Vela shrugged and moved on to the next bundle. She was careful not to step on anything; she didn't want to wake Kyragosa and whoever it was in the other bed. She tip toed over to the next person, holding her breath, and peered down.

She was surprised to see that the second sleeper was actually Grue, wrapped up tightly in a pile of blankets. Even when he was covered in layers of wool he still managed to shiver, making the oddest sound. He too seemed to be in a deep sleep, and Vela wondered what had tired him out so much. She supposed that it had to do with the other night, and she sighed in annoyance, wishing she could remember.

She stood and walked away from Grue, determined not to wake either of them. She could tell that they needed sleep. Instead of settling back down and trying to catch up on her own sleep, she looked at the third and empty bed, and walked over to it. She had no idea who else would be with them, and she was determined to find out, without waking the others.

She went over to the bed and knelt down by it. She touched the blankets, they were still warm. Someone had left them not long ago. And whoever it had been had been tall, not dragon tall, but tall for a mortal. This didn't give Vela much of an idea of who had been there since she didn't know much about the mortal races, especially not about their height.

She sighed and stood up. It was no use sitting around and trying to figure out a mystery that she couldn't solve, so she walked back over to her makeshift bed and sat down. She knew she couldn't go back to sleep, but at least she could rest her muscles while she thought. She wriggled around in her bed, making herself comfortable. She had only slept in a number of mortal beds, but she got the idea.

Once she was comfortable, she started to relax, thinking about everything that had happened. Surprisingly, the first thing that her mind wandered to was Kaijin and Daena. She and Grue had left so abruptly, and Kaijin was the only one that knew. What were they doing now? Were they waiting there, worried?

And even better question popped into her head. Where were they? How far away was the camp where the carriage was? How would Vela and Grue get back? All of these questions, and more, swarmed through Vela's mind, making her stomach churn. This was odd, since she hadn't eaten anything in over twenty four hours and there was really nothing that could be churning.

She started to feel bad about the whole situation. Daena must have been worried sick about them, especially Grue. And Kaijin probably missed them too, since Grue was also the only other guy, and Vela was the only one who could understand his height issues.

Vela sighed, and stopped thinking about it before she could make herself feel any worse. Instead, she focused on trying to remember the events of the night before. She took a deep breath, and relaxed all of her muscles as best as she could. She closed her eyes, preparing to delve deep into her mind. She had done this once before, and it had been a very painful experience.

She focused on her mind and began to go into her memory; she needed to delve deep into her mind, so deep that she wouldn't be aware of the outside world. She went deep, deeper than deep. She was going into a very vulnerable place, one where she had to be very careful. Otherwise, she might damage her own mind.

She supposed she could have been patient and waited for the others to awaken, but then again, she wasn't a very patient person. So she began to go deep into her mind, losing her awareness of reality. She could have been searching for hours upon hours, or maybe it was only seconds. She had no sense of time when she was this deep in her mind, and there was no such thing as going fast and slow.

Finally she found it, her memories of the night before. There was a thick, foggy, mist surrounding them, which explained why she couldn't remember them. She was obviously suffering from some sort of memory loss, why, she didn't know. She flung herself at her memories, forgetting about being slow.

She was flung into everything that had happened at the time where she had forgotten. She was in front of Kyragosa's cage, surrounded by cultists. She was watching herself, as if this had been happening to an entirely different person. But she could feel the emotions.

She felt scared, and worried, extremely worried. Then she heard Kyragosa telling her to change into a dragon, and she finally understood everything. She watched herself as she turned into a humongous, draconic beast, much larger than Deathwing. She felt immense anger and rage overflow her, trying to take over. But she forced it back, long enough to watch what happened.

She marveled at how huge she was, and tiny puzzle pieces started to fit together in her mind. She was starting to understand everything more clearly. She was huge, larger than huge, gigantic! She felt herself shiver in terror as she watched a gigantic flame ripple out of her maw and explode over the rest of the camp, scorching everyone.

Her head was filled with screaming, the screaming of those who had died in those flames. There were full of such terror and fright, it mad her wasn't to scream! She had caused that, _she _had caused them so much pain, so much misery! It had been all her fault they had died. They might have been part of the twilights hammer, but they were still people! They still had lives, and families, and she had ended them. She had caused all of this.

She couldn't bear to watch the rest, and she mentally screamed in protest. But she couldn't look away, not until it was all over. She watched as they all died, painfully burnt to death by her flame. She couldn't take it anymore, she had to get out. She began to tug her conscience out of her memories, willing herself to let go.

It hurt, but she had to do it. She couldn't bear to see any more of those men die, men who were killed by _her. _She was a monster, a villain, she was worse than Deathwing. These thoughts overwhelmed her, making her boil up with guilt and sadness.

_You're no better than your father, _whispered a dark voice in the back of her mind.

She screamed at the voice, trying to drown it out. But another dark thought gripped her. What if it was true, what if she was no better than him? She pushed the thought away, still trying to get out of her memories. More suffering people washed over her, dying because of her, suffering because of her, it was her fault. She screamed, louder than she ever thought she could, and pushed her way out of her mind.

She opened her eyes, screaming louder than she thought she could. She was awake, but dying men still flashed through her vision. She felt tight hands grasp her shoulders as she wailed even louder, her screams echoing off of the trees. She sounded like a banshee. The person holding her tightened their grip, turning it into a hug.

Her wails quieted as hot tears melted down her cheeks, pouring out. She had never cried before, never. Yet here she was, being rocked back and forth as tears began to pour out of her eyes, not ending any time soon. She let the gentle rocking sooth her, and the images of those she had killed went away.

She found herself sobbing, muttering one phrase over and over again "I killed them… I killed them… I killed them…."

"Hush now child," she heard a soft female voice say "It's all right now,"

It was the person holding her tight, rocking her back in forth where she sat on her bed. She let the rocking sooth her, calming her down. Soon she stopped muttering that phrase, and the tears began to dry on her red and puffy face. Her eyes were still slammed shut; she didn't want to see the world.

The images she had seen stopped coming, and she felt herself going into a deep, uneasy, sleep.

Vela awoke to someone combing through her hair gently. She was in the same position she had been in when she had fallen asleep, against someone's chest. She felt slimy and awful, as if she had jumped around in a lake in Felwood. Her cheeks felt dirty from the dried up tears on them, and her entire body ached from being in the same position all this time. She blinked open her eyes, which were covered in crust, and bright daylight filtered in.

She guessed it was about mid-day, but she couldn't be sure. The person combing through her hair seemed to notice that she was awake, and Vela felt her head being moved until it was on someone's lap.

She looked up into the bright blue eyes of the high elf Kyragosa, who looked tired, but not as tired as when she had come out of her prison. She had a spark of wisdom in her eyes as well, and Vela felt that it was hard to look away from her gaze.

Kyragosa was the first to speak, she was serious, but she had a tint of sympathy in her words "You have a lot to explain about last night, child."

Vela swallowed, and found that her throat was thick and swollen. "Is it true, then?" she asked "Am I really….?"

The wise dragon nodded and said "You are. If you are well enough, I wish for you to explain."

"I'm fine," said Vela as she sat up in her bed, getting off of Kyragosa "Where's Grue? I want him to hear this.

"The goblin? I sent him off for a walk with my assistant Miri." Vela raised an eyebrow and Kyragosa said "Miri is a dragonsworn, a night lf to be specific. She aided me in helping you and your friend. I will go fetch them,"

Kyragosa stood and went over to an opening in the camp. She disappeared from Vela's sight, and she lay down on her bed, tired, even though she had been sleeping for a few hours. She was about to do something she had never expected to do. A lot had changed for her, and it was all happening so fast!

She had always known that there was a possibility that this could happen, but she had never really thought that it would. She never really thought that Deathwing would die, either. And he left his only sane daughter a pretty sad inheritance, one she never wished for. But she couldn't take it back now. Besides, she knew her father hadn't wanted her of all dragons to succeed him, but she couldn't change that.

She would be stuck with this for the rest of her life, which would be a lot longer now. How could this happen to her? She didn't want this life! She just wanted to get out of Northrend and live out her life, as normal as it could be. But she guessed that wouldn't be so easy now.

She heard a rustling in the bushes, and heavy footsteps on the ground, and she immediately sat up. The sounds got louder until Kyragosa, Grue, and a night elf Vela didn't know stepped out of the undergrowth. She noticed that Grue looked worn and tired, but he still managed to smile at her, all though it was weak. She tried to smile back, but found herself unable to. What she was about to tell them was something she had never told anyone, and she was worried as to how they would react.

She studied the night elf, Miri. She had long, mint green hair that fell down over her shoulders. Parts of it shrouded her face, but it couldn't hide her bright yellow druidic eyes. She wore a brown leather shirt and brown leather pants, no shoes or gloves. She had small pocket knife fastened onto her belt, but Vela knew she was no rogue. She could practically smell the druidic power emanating off of her.

The night elf caught her eye, and Vela half expected her to glare at her. But the night elf showed no emotion, her face was taunt and expressionless.

The three of them sat down in front of Vela, giving her two feet of space. Grue sat closest to her, and she saw a slight drop of worry in his eyes. She managed to put on a small smiled for him, but it quickly faded. Kyragosa sat next to Vela, as if she expected Vela to burst out crying and need help like she did before. Miri sat a little ways off, not in front of her but still close enough to see Vela easily.

"Miri," said Kyragosa "This is Velathelina."

Miri nodded, her face showing no emotion.

"Please," said Kyragosa "Be nice. I know what happened before, but, Velathelina is… special. Show respect."

Mire nodded after a second, and Vela noticed that her hands were in tight fists, so tight that the light purple skin turned to white.

Before she could ask anything, Grue piped up. "I see you got a new outfit kid," he said, trying to make her happy again.

She smiled, but it was fake. She wanted him to think she was ok, but she really wasn't.

"Would you like to begin, Vela?" asked Kyragosa, her voice soft but curious. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

Vela swallowed the hard lump in her throat. "No," she said "You deserve an explanation. Besides, you need to know. This affects the world, and I would be selfish not to tell you."

"What's so big?" asked Grue.

Vela smiled, this time for real. "Not big," she said "Gigantic."

She swallowed again, knowing that she could put this off no longer. She took a deep breath, harnessing her emotions. She could not break down; her story had to be told.

She looked all of them over, even the tense Miri, and began. "For a long time, I have told people that the reason my people imprisoned me was because I was sane." she said "Well, that was a lie. Partially, that is. The real reason is much worse."

She took in a deep breath of air, starting off her story for real "I suppose it all started when I was a whelp. I was the strongest of my clutch. I was the fastest, the smartest, the most flexible, I was the best. I won every challenge, beating my siblings by a landslide every time. I was sure to be a great drake, perhaps even like my sister, Onyxia." She paused, and then went on "As it was, the other dragons began to notice my potential, and I started to be trained by some of the drake's teachers. But I was better than that, and somehow I found myself being taught by the strongest of us all, and my father, _Deathwing._"

She spat the name out with as much venom as she could, and she saw Miri shudder. Grue did nothing, but she could tell that he was slightly shocked. Kyragosa was silent, but Vela could feel waves of tension coming off of her. Miri shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Vela herself wished her father hadn't been who he had been, but she couldn't change that now.

She cleared her throat and went on "As a whelp, soon to be drake, I admired Deathwing just as all of the others of my kind did. I thought he was a true hero. I was so wrong." She paused, and then went on "Deathwing himself, having so many children, gave me no special treatment. He didn't even know I was his descendant. And most of his students were drakes, so he never gave me much attention. Until one day."

"I was a drake when it all began to go downhill, for Deathwing that was. It was only three hundred years ago, actually." she said "Slowly, very slowly, Deathwing began to lose his power. And as he lost it, I gained it. He was dying, very slowly. Nobody can take on what he had to take on without dying eventually. And over time I began to become extremely powerful, whereas Deathwing became weaker."

"I remember we were out on a hunt, as a training session, when it all happened. We were attacked by a group of red dragonflight spies. We were greatly outnumbered, and it looked as if we wouldn't make It." she paused, and then went on "I fought, and I won every battle. Just as it looked like we would have somewhat of a chance, a backup group came in. we were being demolished, everyone being killed. I don't know how it happened, maybe it was instinct, but as we were completely surrounded, I didn't the most amazing thing. I let out a flame, a beautiful, blue fire flame. It killed all of the red dragons."

"I was so proud, so happy, and so blind. My trainer told deathwing about what had happened, and it turned out that I had performed a move that only he should have been able to do. And, he had recently lost the ability to do it. I was watched closely for the next year as they began to study what was happening. What had occurred was amazing," she paused, and then went on "The madness in Deathwing rendered him unable to use his aspect powers, a trick of the titans I suppose. But no one could take his place, since all of the black dragons were crazy. But then I came along. And, as a mechanism for the power that the aspects have, his power was slowly put into me, and he slowly died as a result."

"When he found out about this, he locked me up, as of that would do any good. I was never to be seen by mortal or immortal eyes. The people that fed me were human slaves, who had been blinded as punishment for whatever they had done. The only person I had was my inmate, Kaldor. His punishment was seeing me, for some reason. I don't really know what that was supposed to do, but Deathwing was very crazy by then." she breathed then went on "I rotted in there for one hundred years, until the red dragons kidnap me. Then I was their prisoner until I escaped recently. I haven't changed into my dragon form in over one hundred years, and now I understand what happened."

"I'm not sure exactly how it works, or how it happened, but I know that as soon as Deathwing was killed, all of his power was transferred to me. It was hidden until I transformed into my dragon form, which is my pure form. Then it expanded, and now I have full control over It." she paused to breath "I don't know if this is true, I don't know if what I am about to tell you is right or not, but I can't come up with any other explanation."

She looked around at them, hoping that this was a good idea. Grue had a patient look on his face, but she could tell he had been waiting for this moment. Kyragosa had sympathy in her eyes, but she still looked curious. Miri was expressionless, but her fists were clenched tight, so tight that Vela wouldn't have been surprised if the skin on her knuckles burst open.

She took a deep breath. This was the moment they had all been waiting for. It was time for her to tell her secret. There was no going back now.

She sat straight, confident. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes two catlike amber eyes peered back at them. she was staring at nothing, yet everything. This was the moment of truth, and it was time they knew.

She looked at all of them, as if she was daring them to defy her with her golden amber gaze. She sat straight, took a deep breath, and said what she had never imagined she would say "I am the black dragon aspect. I am the queen of the black dragons."

_**Wow! Who would have guessed? But there's even more secrets in store! Until next time I, suppose! Also, thank you all for reading! Your continued support has really helped my writing. These chapters are getting longer; do you like the new length?**_

_**And coincidencless, red dragons coming… this has given me ideas, very interesting ideas.**_


	12. A New Group

Vela looked around at the three people surrounding her, wondering what they were thinking of what she had just told them. Kyragosa seemed to have edged away from Vela, but she had somewhat of a sympathetic look on her face. Miri looked as if she wanted to smash something, the skin on her knuckles a pale white when it should have been a light purple. Grue seemed shocked, his eyes bulged to twice there normal size and his jaw slightly open.

Vela felt as if her mind was spinning. She had no idea why, but she felt like the world had gone upside down and was spinning around. She had a headache and she felt slightly nauseous. She rubbed her head, whimpering slightly. She had no idea where it had come from, but there it was, pain. Not sharp achy pain, not sickness pain, she just felt wrong, all over. As if there was something wrong with her, deep inside. She couldn't quite describe it, she just felt wrong. As if she wasn't what she was supposed to be.

As she rubbed her head, trying to ward off the headache, the pain began to disperse, leaving barely any trace that it ever existed. She sighed in relief, glad that it was gone. She had to be focused, ready for her judgment time. It was time to hear what the others felt of her.

She looked around, and saw that there expressions were the same as before, confused, shocked, and a little anger from Miri. Vela didn't quite like the night elf so far, the druid gave her the jitters, and she could tell that something had happened to her, something that made her loathe Vela, and a dragonsworn that loathed you was not a good things, especially of they worked with you. Just being around Miri made Vela tense.

She waited, watching each of them, wondering when and how they would react to everything she had revealed to them. She wasn't entirely sure if it was the truth, anyway. She wasn't entirely sure if she was the aspect, it was likely that she received a lot of power, but not all of it. She had been told many times over that only a titan could give a dragon the full power of an aspect, and she was pretty sure that inheriting it didn't make the cut. After all, you don't just go to sleep normal and wake up a freaking aspect, no matter how much power she may have received in the past.

She herself didn't really want any power. She wanted to be normal, well, as normal as you could be as the last remaining black dragon who was running away from the red dragonflight as she escaped the icy tundras of Northrend. And this whole power thing was making it even harder, if she even did have this power. The other night had been the other night, and she may have embellished everything since she was in her dragon form, since she tended to be less observant when she was incinerating an entire colony of twilight cultists.

She had definitely grown a lot bigger, but she may not have been as big as she had thought. She made a mental note for herself to ask Kyragosa later, if she had time. She didn't really know what was going to happen now. Could she really return to traveling with Daena and the gang, after all this had happened? She needed help, she needed guidance. Something only another dragon could give her now.

Everything had changed. Everything had been turned around and flipped upside down. There was no way Vela could just waltz into town with horns growing out of her head, so that was out of the question. And she had so much cleavage there was no way anyone would help her, unless they were desperate men.

She would have to figure out this whole transformation thing. She had only been around the black dragonflight long enough to learn how to transform into her true mortal form, which was her truest form she could be in as a mortal. Now she would have to transform into her lesser mortal form, which she was hoping she could learn from Kyragosa. Otherwise, she would have some problems mingling with the mortals.

She would also have to figure out better ways of hiding herself from the other dragonflights. Deathwing's immense power had made him a huge magnet on the radar, and that was likely how he got killed so easily. Vela couldn't have that.

She was just hoping that Kyragosa would be able to help her with all of these problems, other wise she was screwed. There was no way in hell she could do all of this by herself, and still manage to get out of Northrend.

As she was thinking about all of this, she didn't notice the others stirring until Grue opened his mouth to speak. "So what you're saying, is that you're the black dragon aspect?" he asked.

Vela snapped her head up, having been caught off guard, and nodded her head.

"That's impossible," said Grue "The aspects gave up their power during the fight with Deathwing, there's no way you could be an aspect."

Vela practically burst out laughing, hugging herself as she tried to compress her amusement. She was bent over with her eyes slammed shut, unable to control the laughter that was pouring out of her. Beside her, she could hear Kyragosa giggling, as she was obviously better at controlling herself. But Vela was eventually able to regain her posture, at least enough to stop laughing that is.

"Power like that doesn't just disappear, Grue," she said.

Grue raised an eyebrow, confused. "But the former aspects are powerless now, mortals. How can you be an aspect, with the aspect power, if they have lost theirs?" he asked.

This made Vela raise an eyebrow. "Actually, he has a point. If the former aspects don't have their power anymore, then how do I have it?" she asked Kyragosa.

Kyragosa, still sitting only a few feet away from Vela's left, was sitting very still, obviously thinking hard as she was holding her chin in her he=and and looking blankly into space. Vela was doing something very similar, only she stared blankly at the ground.

The idea that Grue had just proposed had brought up many new topics for Vela, specifically having to do with the former aspects. If they really didn't have their power anymore, then where did it go? Power that immense, especially since it was the power of the titans, didn't just vanish into thing air. It might have dispersed and gotten smaller, but it would never be able to truly disappear. There would be some remnant of it, some fragment to prove that it existed.

But where was this fragment? Where would this power go after it was used by the aspects? It would have to go to another host, of a sorts. Power worked in mysterious ways like that, it needed a host so that it could feed. Like a parasite, almost, only instead of draining the host, it gives them more.

And what about Vela? How could she have this power, if the others didn't? What made her ever so special? Deathwing had died, so the power from him had to have gone somewhere, and now it was Vela's.

"This is a very interesting situation," said Kyragosa "I will have to do more research, but I may have an idea as to what is going on here. The goblin has a point, Vela, so this power isn't exactly the same as the aspects power."

Vela raised an eyebrow, confused. "So, what you're saying, is that the power I have isn't exactly the same as the power the aspects had, but it comes from the same source?" she asked.

"Possibly," said Kyragosa "But, like I said, I will have to do more research. For now, I don't know. What happened last night could have just been a power burst, or maybe it was something much more."

Miri, still sitting in her little corner with her fists clenched, piped up. "So she isn't an aspect?"

"The power she has comes from the power of the aspects, but it's not completely the same, not as powerful, if that makes any sense." said Kyragosa "But I think we can call her an aspect safely, but I will have to do more research."

"I have no idea what any of you are talking about right now," said Grue "Is she an aspect, or not?"

"Lets just say that she is," said Kyragosa "For now, but she isn't exactly."

Grue sighed, not liking how complicated things were. "I'm just going to say she's an aspect."

"Hey, you think you're confused? It's my power and I have no idea what's going on with it what it actually is!" said Vela.

"Okay, now that we know all of this, what are we going to do?" asked Miri.

Kyragosa looked to Vela questioningly. "I don't know!" said Vela.

"I have to go back to Daena and Kaijin," said Grue "They've been waiting for us the entire night! They must be worried out of their minds."

Vela suddenly felt hollow in side. There was no way she could go back to traveling with Daena now that all of this had happened. She needed help, and she could only get it from Kyragosa. Besides, Daena would see the two horns sticking out of the sides of her head and know something was up. There was just no way she could go back to traveling as a mortal.

All eyes were on her, waiting for her decision. They all seemed to know that she had to make a choice. Vela thought hard, knowing she had to stay with Kyragosa, but not wanting to. She liked traveling with Daena, and she had just made Grue as a friend, and she didn't want to let that go.

But she had to stay with Kyragosa, she was the only dragon who would actually help her with her problems. She would have to let go of the three people she had just met, who were now her friends of a sort, she had to.

She sighed, and looked up. Knowing that what she was about to say had to be said, and that she had to do this, despite how she would miss the others. "I have to stay with Kyragosa, that is, if you would help me, Kyragosa."

The blue dragon nodded and said "Of course I'll help you! I'd be a fool not to. Besides, no other dragon would, and no other friend of yours can."

Vela smiled slightly, glad that the blue dragon would help her. She looked over at Grue and saw that he looked slightly saddened. It was barely showing, but she could tell that he was sad to see her go.

"What will I tell Daena when I get back?" asked Grue as he looked up at her.

She thought for a second and then said "Tell her I met up with some friends and I'm finding my own way," she looked over at Kyragosa and asked "Where are we heading?"

"We are going to Dalaran first, I don't know where after." she said.

Vela nodded and said "Tell Daena I will meet up with you in Dalaran. Give it a month, and if I'm not there by then, then don't bother waiting."

Grue looked slightly shocked, and a little confused. "I guess that would work out. I'm sure Daena can find a way to make money for us in Dalaran," he said "Are you sure you want to leave? I'm sure Daena wouldn't mind you even if she knew you were a black dragon."

Vela shook her head, knowing it would never work out the way Grue was proposing it could. "I have to stay with them, Kyragosa is the only one who can help me with all of this," she said.

"Are you sure?" asked Grue, a glint of sadness in his eyes.

Vela smiled, trying to cheer him up. "It has to be done." she said "But don't worry, you'll see me again sooner than you think, in Dalaran."

grue smiled back at her, weakly. "I guess you're right." he said "I'll see you again, in Dalaran."

"You better go soon, little goblin," said Kyragosa "The sun is near to down, and it is not wise to travel in Northrend at night without a weapon."

"I have magic," said Grue.

"Magic won't fend off all of the murlocs that will be coming out of the sea tonight to go to the lakes for spring," warned Kyragosa.

Grue gulped. "Well, I guess you're right about that." he said as he stood "I just wish I could stay a little longer,"

Everyone else, except for Miri, stood as well. Vela smiled down at Grue, wishing she didn't have to see the goblin go so soon. She had really thought that they would have become good friends, but it seemed as if fate had different plans for them. But she really had wished that she would have had more time with Daena and the others, but at least she would see them again soon, in Dalaran.

Grue held out a small green hand towards Vela and Vela knelt down to shake it. They clapped their hands together with a smack, and by the look on Grue's face Vela may have been yanking a little to hard.

"It was nice meetin' yuh kid," said Grue in a goblin rich accent.

And with that Grue turned to Kyragosa, with a questioning look on his face.

"Go out of the camp entrance and down the slope until you come to a road, take that road to the left and from what I've been told you should run right into where your carriage is." she said.

Grue nodded, then turned towards the camp entrance and made his way towards it. Just as he was about to walk though, he turned, and waved back at them, a warm smile on his face. Vela smiled, and waved back, hoping he would have a safe journey back to Daena's carriage.

When he was finally gone, Vela turned to Kyragosa, wondering what she should do. She had no idea what they she was supposed to do now that she was traveling with Kyragosa, and she wanted to help somehow. She hadn't done much to help with Daena, and she wanted to change that.

Kyragosa yawned, stretching her arms out wide into the sky. It was then that Vela realized how tired she was, and she felt a yawn coming on, which she quickly swallowed. Kyragosa blinked a few times, as of she had just woken up from a long sleep and everything seemed blurry. She wrinkled hr nose and stretched her limbs a few more times before she finally came back to earth.

She looked at Vela and smiled. "Well, Velathelina. Welcome to the camp I suppose." she giggled slightly "I hope you travel well, because I won't be slagging behind on the road for you tomorrow,"

"Tomorrow?" asked Vela "We're going to travel so soon?"

"Is there a problem with that?" asked Miri, who was standing next to Kyragosa with her arms folded. "Being an aspect and all I'd have thought you would have the muscle to keep up."

Vela crossed her arms and said "I spent two nights and two days running from the red dragonflight, running for a full night without rest and the next two days and one night swimming up a river only stopping once to eat a small burnt rodent, not complaining at all. Don't even think about fighting me when it comes to strength, you will not like the outcome."

Miri huffed, and stood back a few paces, her eyebrows crossed in a scowl. Kyragosa only sighed, obviously not liking how things were going so far. And Vela didn't blame her, things between her and Miri didn't seem to be going to well, and there was no sign of it getting better.

"Anyway," said Kyragosa, breaking the tense silence that had settled in "Yes, we will be traveling tomorrow, we have to make good timing to Dalaran. a good forty miles a day is what we usually go, perhaps more now that we have some one else to help carry the stuff." she smiled at Vela.

"I never thought I would be used as a pack dragon," Vela said, making both her and Kyragosa laugh.

"Yes, yes, do not worry about getting out of shape when traveling with us, we'll be use to give you plenty to do," said Kyragosa.

Vela smiled, starting to like this already. her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten en in far over twenty-four hours. She looked up at Kyragosa, who seemed to be hungry as well. The blue dragon thought for a few moments before finally responding.

"I believe we still have some roast boar left over in the packs," she said "We can have that. It's not fresh, but it will do. You have, it, don't you, Miri?"

The druid nodded and walked over to where an empty bed roll lay, and began to rummage around in it.

Meanwhile, Kyragosa slapped her hands together, smiling, and said "I'll start a fire. We'll need one to help warm this freezing place up,"

She walked over to a small pit in the middle of the clearing, a pile of wood set in it, and knelt down beside it. She closed her eyes, her brow furrowed in deep concentration, and held her hands out in front of the pit. When she opened her eyes again, they were glowing a bright blue, brighter than a high elf's eyes, and she began to open her mouth slightly, creating a hole just large enough for a thin jet of blue flame to come rolling put, setting the wood ablaze. The fire crackled and hissed with bolts of electricity, still burning a bright blue, until it finally hanged into a bright orange, crackling less so.

Vela walked over to the fire and sat down next to it, smiling as the heat soaked into her cold skin. She let every muscle in her body relax, letting the heat flow through her body. She was cold-blooded, and this fire kept her from freezing to death. And her new outfit wasn't helping at all. The clothing she was wearing was thin and non protecting towards the harsh winter of Northrend, and there was little of it.

She hissed, annoyed at this whole aspect thing. She just wanted to go back to her old life, when she was just a normal black drake. Well, as normal as she could have been being the only sane black dragon in all of existence. But it was better than being an aspect, if she even was one. She was hoping she wasn't and that she just had a lot of power. Being an aspect, specifically being the black dragon aspect, sucked. You had immense responsibility all the time and there was no such thing as relaxing, because the entire world of Azeroth depended on you being conscious, healthy, and doing something.

At least, that was what Vela had seen. If you were an aspect relaxing for just a little bit, the whole freaking world might blow up out of no where. It was as if, in Vela's mind, that being an aspect meant working your ass off twenty four seven for a bunch of ungrateful mortals, depriving yourself of a personal life and the ability to enjoy the world. And that was a life vela wished upon no one, especially not herself.

She was just glad that this whole thing would probably blow over, and it would turn out that she wasn't really all that powerful. Then, she could get the hell out of Northrend, as far away from all of the other dragonflights, and settle down somewhere far away from the rest of civilization and live out the rest of her life in relative peacefulness.

So far, that wasn't working out for her. She was still stuck in the middle of Northrend, she was working with a blue dragon to help her with her mass power, and she might just be the all mighty black dragon aspect of earth, in which case she would have to live out her life picking up after the mortals damage to the world and talk to all of the other dragonflights, and probably have to speak with the other dragon aspects themselves, which would turn out very well.

Vela sighed, feeling a massive ache coming into her already throbbing head. This whole adventure definitely wasn't turning out the way she had expected. Kyragosa, having been watching her for the past few minutes, scooted over next to her, smiling with what seemed to be amusement.

"Having trouble with being a possible aspect?" she asked.

Vela swung her head over to look at Kyragpsa, smiling. As she looked at the blue dragon, she noticed that her hair was not completely back, but had a white tint to it, something that only occurred in extremely old dragons. She raised an eyebrow, curious.

"How old are you exactly, if you don't mind me asking?" Vela asked, trying not to seem rude.

Kyragosa swung her head back, looking up into the gray black sky, and sighed, then said "Well lets see... Roughly, I'd have to say about eight thousand years old."

vea's eyes grew wide, shocked by the large number Kyragosa had just said. "That's a little old, Kyragosa. But it explains the white tint in your hair, I suppose."

"Oh this?" said Kyragosa waving a hand over her black white ponytail that lay over her shoulder "Oh, it's really white. I keep it black so I don't look too old." she waved a hand, lit with blue electric like magic, over her hair, and it tuned a ghostly white, making the blue dragon look much older and wiser. She waved the hand back up her hair, making it turn jet black. "Oh, and call me Kyra, It's best you get used to my mortal name for when we stop of in town tomorrow."

Vela nodded. "Call me Vela, by the way. Hearing my full name makes my skin crawl, you know, because of its meaning." she said.

A gust of wind blew by her, making her shudder from how exposed her skin was to the harsh weather. She really didn't like this new out fit.

Kyragosa chuckled. "Do you need some help changing your outfit, Vela?" she asked, an amused smile on her face.

Vela blushed slightly. "If you could help that would be nice,"

Kyra smiled and sat up on her knees. She put her hands out in front of her, aimed towards Vela, and closed her eyes. Both of her hands fizzed with blue energy, liking electrical bolts pulsing through her skin. They crackled and fizzed, similar to how the blue fire had been at first. It took a few seconds for the magic to take effect, but Vela could feel things moving together in her mind, shifting and changing like a puzzle. She closed her eyes, trying to figure out what was happening so that she could learn how to do it.

As she delved into her subconscious, she came to the place that Kyra was changing. It was deep in her mind, close to her magic. It was like a group of wires and cords, all grouped up together. They seemed to be squirming around, changing the way they were arranged, which changed the way Vela's mortal form appeared. She tried to tap into the blue magic that was flowing into them, likely Kyra's magic, but when she tried she received a painful shock, and she went further away from the spot in her mind.

Soon the wires and cords had changed their alignment completely, and Vela could feel that her mortal body was warmer, and she began to make her way out of the spot in her mind. She opened her eyes, immediately looking down at her new outfit.

She was wearing plate armor, from what she could tell, completely black. She wore a black plate chest piece, going down to her mid torso and stopping abruptly. She wore plate pants and knee-high boots, all making her much warmer than the skirt she had worn before. She had black spiked pauldrons, the spikes reaching up to the top of her neck, and elbow length gloves, giving her a dark and sinister look. It reminded her of the brood mother Sinestra's armor, only much darker and more regal.

She smiled, glad at the new warmth that filled her body. She had no idea how the female dragon aspects went about wearing what they did, especially in such cold weather. She could understand it if she were in a tropical place, but still, it left her feeling exposed, and it would be easy to get attacked.

She looked over at Kyra and saw that the blue dragon was sitting, her legs crossed, sucking in the warmth of the fire. You would have never guessed that her hands were ignited with blue magic only a few seconds ago, as they were as flawless and as smooth as any other mortals, showing no sign of being lit up with blue electrical energy. She was smiling, and she had her eyes closed, obviously enjoying the warmth of the fire.

"Do you like your new outfit, Vela?" she asked without even opening an eye.

"Yes," said Vela "It's much warmer than that damn skirt I was wearing before. Honestly, I have no idea why the women of the mortal world wear those things, they are outrageously uncomfortable."

"Some have to wear skirts,"

Vela looked behind her and saw that Miri was coming over, carrying two bowls of food. She sat down between Kyra and Vela, handing them each a bowl with a little metal thing pointing out of it. Vela picked up the bowl and examined the metal thing in it. It was a thin line of shiny sliver metal with an oval at the end, which was deeper. She thought she remembered it being called a spoon, but she couldn't be sure.

Vela raised an eyebrow, and Miri continued. "In the culture of the humans, all women, except for the fighters, either wear dresses or skirts." she said.

"Why would they do that?" asked Vela.

Miri shrugged. "It's like an unspoken rule. There's no law that says they have to, but they will be shunned upon by the public if they don't. It's a cultural thing." she said "And most magic users wear 'robes,' but they're really dresses, the men just don't like to say it." a smiled tugged at her lips, and Vela was surprised at how the night elf's mood had changed so quickly from bitter rage to peacefulness, and even amusement.

"Robes aren't that bad," said Kyra, and Vela realized that she was wearing a robe.

"Robes are fine," said Vela "It's just skirts that I will never understand."

Kyra chuckled slightly, and Miri smiled, for a moment. Then her face went expressionless, and the tension between her and Vela seemed to increase once again, and there was no more laughter. Vela sighed, wishing she could get along easier with the druid. It would make things a lot easier if the druid would only smile and communicate for a change.

Vela looked down at the bowl that was in her hands. It seemed to be soup, of some sort. It was chunks of what looked to be boar sitting in a puddle of brown water, and Vela had no idea what she was supposed to do. Was she supposed to eat it? The water looked like it had mud in it, and she was not about to go and drink mud water.

She looked at Kyra questioningly, and the blue dragon smiled, amused.

"It is soup," she said "It is good, despite the brown color of the broth. Trust me, it is good. Just try it."

Vela was uncertain about it, but she decided that she would trust Kyra, and her stomach seemed to trust her too. She took the spoon and put it into the brown water, getting a few bits of meat on the oval part and a lot of brown water, then picked it up and plunged it into her mouth. She smiled as the food reached her tongue. The brown water tasted like chicken, only better than chicken. And the boar tasted like, well, boar, which was always good. She savored the tastes, and spooned more mouthfuls of it into her mouth, eating greedily.

She could hear Kyra chuckling as the blue dragon watched her, but she ignored it. She was too hungry to care about Kyra giggling at how sloppily she was eating. She devoured the bowl in a matter of minutes, leaving not even a drop of the brown water in the bowl. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, not caring about manners any more. She was in the middle of the forest, there was no need for being well-mannered there.

She looked up and saw that both Miri and Kyra were staring at her with wide eyes. She rolled her eyes, thinking that it was silly that they were making such a big deal out of her lack of manners, and stood.

"I'm going to bed," she said, half yawning as she did so.

Miri nodded and Kyra said "Good night, don't let the frost bugs bite,"

Vela smiled, secretly wondering of there really was such things as frost bugs. hoping that there weren't, she turned around and walked over to where her bed roll was, sitting a good seven feet from the fire and in a big tangle of blankets and pillows. She sighed and knelt down beside her bed, wishing she could have been better at keeping it in tack.

She quickly sorted through the blankets and pillows, making a decent bed with two pillows on one end and a nice three layers of blankets on the other side. She smiled, glad that she would be able to sleep. She took of her pauldrons, boots, and gloves, and decided to sleep in the rest since she didn't want the others to see her naked.

With her armor in a neat heap beside her pillow, she lay down in her bed, putting the blankets all the way up to her nose, and let all of her muscles relax as she allowed sleep to take her. She closed her eyes, wishing to get a better nights sleep than she had the other night. Well, that was one wish she wasn't going to get.


	13. There's Something Strange About Miri

_Dear Readers: I would like to thank all of you who have been reading this story so far, thanks for reading! And a special thanks to coincidencless for reviewing every chapter and following this story from the very beginning, thanks! I would also like to thank everyone else who has reviewed, your reviews and opinions really help motivate me to write this story!  
_

Vela's dreams were filled with hatred and terror, all involving the night she had incinerated the twilight encampment. There was never a moment of peace in her dreams, there was only fire, and the shrill screams of terror from all of the cultists that had been burned to death from her inevitable flame of doom. Every single one of those people died, there was not a soul among them who wasn't killed or mortally wounded.

Visions of burning tents flashed across the black background of her sleeping mind, and there was no escaping the horror she had brought to all of those people. Her fire swallowed the land, engulfing everyone in its path, not letting anyone escape its wrath. Everything was incinerated, everything was burned. people, animals, tents, things, it all burned from the wrath of the flame that she had released.

All the terror, all of the hopelessness those people had felt before they had died, rushed into her. She felt their surprise, their terror, and there pain as the fire washed over them, killing them in a matter of seconds. She was reliving each and everyone of those people's lives at the moment they died. She felt so much pain, so much helplessness. Some of them had a family, some of them were just starting out in their lives.

They were innocent, despite the dark path they had chosen in life, and she had killed them. She had ended all of there lives in that one moment. They had had dreams before they had, dreams of becoming something more. But all of those dreams had been crushed in that one terrible moment, crushed by her.

It was her fault that they were dead. It was her fault that some families in the world didn't have a father, or a mother, or a brother or sister, or uncle or whatever. It was all her fault that some families were missing someone. It was all her fault that some families were grieving right now, grieving for the people she had killed that night.

Pure guilt spread through her as the images continued to run across her mind. She regretted it, she regretted killing them. She regretting ruining their dreams, and making them feel so much pain. She regretted that she was the reason that even more families in the world were missing someone. Because it was all her fault, and she had been the reason for so much pain and terror.

As the images flashed through her mind, and the awful screams of terror roared in her ears, one sinister, chilling voice, whispered through her mind, drowning out all other noises.

_You are a monstrosity, you caused all of this pain, you. It's all your fault. Your just like the rest of your kind, just like your father._

She roared at the voice, willing her roar to be louder than it was. But it wasn't loud enough, and the evil words flowed through her mind once again, faster and faster and with more venom with each awful phrase.

_You are the embodiment of evil. You caused pain to all of those people, all of those innocent men and women who had families somewhere else. You ruined there families, depriving them of someone. It's all your fault, all your fault, you. _

She roared even louder, trying to push her way out of her dream, push her way away from the evil voices, away from the awful images that would haunt her for the rest of her life. But she was stuck, with no way out, forced to listen to the sinister voices bound upon making her suffer with there awful words and taunting voices.

_You did this, you caused all of this. Only evil things like you cause pain like this. And you are evil, just like the rest of your kind, just like your father, Deathwing. You are just like him, you cause just as much, if not more, terror than he. You are the real destroyer, ruining the lives of all the people like you had just a few nights ago. You are the real abomination, and there's no way around it. You are a monster. You. You. You.  
_

Vela roared at the voice with all of her might, forcing herself to be louder than it was. This was her mind, not the voices, and she was in control. They would not hurt her any more, she wouldn't let them taunt her any longer. She pushed her way out of her slumber, forcing herself to wake up. The voices followed, taunting her and making her want to burst. She pushed her way out of the dream with all of her strength, leaving the voices far behind her, still trying to taunt her.

She woke up, panting heavily in her bedroll, sitting up right. She had a humongous headache, and her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to burst. She was covered in sweat from head to toe and her skin had a pink tint to it where it should have been pale. The voices evil phrases still haunted her, rolling over and over again in her mind, but they slowly got quieter as she adjusted to the waking world.

As she got her breathing under control, she looked at the horizon and that that it was a pale gray, signaling that dawn was fast approaching. The rest of the sky was jet black, so she figured she still had a good hour or so until the sun fully came up.

Her fast breathing slowed to heavy breaths, and her heart beat began to slow down as well. Her head still throbbed, showing no sign of going away, but her skin color was fading back into its rightful pale color, so she assumed that she would be all right. But the voices evil words still taunted her, pushed to the back of her mind, but still there, like an evil presence on her mind.

She groaned and rubbed her head, tired of the head aches she was getting frequently. What was wrong with her? Why were all of these things happening to her, and now of all times? She already had enough problems to deal with, and she didn't need to add frequent nightmares followed by severe migraines to the list.

She sighed, and looked around the camp, wondering how long it would before the others woke up. There was absolutely no way she would be able to go back to sleep now, after the awful ream she had received. And the voices were still fresh in her mind, as if they were speaking to her at the very moment. She could remember every dark phrase they had told her, every shilling word, and it made her head spin with frustration.

As she looked around she saw the fire had been put out, and she guessed that the others had put it out not long ago, for a little column of black spoke still rose up into the sky.

She raised an eyebrow, wondering how long the others had been up. The fire must have been put out just recently, no more than an hour ago, and she was certain that it was near dawn. How long had they stayed up, and why?

She shrugged the thought off, deciding that it didn't matter at the moment. So they had stayed up late, she thought, big deal, I stay up late too. She stretched her arms into the sky, only stopping when she felt her muscles warm. She decided she might as well do something now that she was awake, She wasn't going to just sit there and wait for the others to wake up. If they stayed up as late as Vela thought they had, she would be waiting for a very long time.

She stood up, and began to stretch her stiff muscles. She had been hoping that they would feel better once she got a good nights sleep, but she didn't really get a good nights sleep. And she guessed that rolling around in her bedroll all night long didn't really help either.

Once her muscles were as refreshed as they could be, she looked around for something to do, using her night vision to see through the still dark camp. She saw two sleeping bags on the other side of the fire, and she could hear soft snoring from one of them. There was a pile of what looked to be bags not far from the fire pit as well. There wasn't much in the little camp, which made it easier to maneuver in.

She began to wonder what she could do, possibilities going through her mind, which was feeling much better now that the voices were gone and the headache was slowly going away. She didn't have anything with her, so she couldn't read or anything like that. She had no food to eat, and she didn't feel like standing around for the next few hours.

As she came up with different things to do, her eyes wandered to the camp entrance. It was a small little opening in the camp, just barely large enough for a mortal to get though, with plants of all kinds lining its path.

As she looked at the entrance to the camp, an idea popped into her head. If she was careful enough and didn't get lost, perhaps she could go for a short walk, stretch her stiff muscles and get some exercise. She smiled at the idea, wanting to get out of the camp and do something besides sleep and eat. She decided to go ahead with it, and she trotted over to the entrance, careful not to make any noise that would awaken the others.

She emerged onto a small dirt path, lined with flora and fauna of all kinds. The path wasn't very wide, and she felt squished, being brushed by all sorts of plants. She just hoped that none of them were poisonous.

As she walked along the path, trying not to brush against anything that looked poisonous, she began to notice the clear signs of dawn approaching through nature. The birds were beginning to sing, mostly the deep caws of mourning doves though. And the flowers were beginning to open up, ready for the sunlight to come and give them what they needed. And the entire forest was beginning to warm up slightly, which was good for Vela since Northrend was just barely tolerable with its temperature being so low.

Her mind began to wander as she walked, wandering to different topics that crossed her mind. But she always seemed to wander back to the fact that she was an aspect. Well, she had an aspects power, or at least the majority of it. She had sensed that something had changed inside of her over the past few months, she had felt different when she was imprisoned and she had felt odd when she was traveling with Daena.

She had no idea what it was at the time, but now that this whole aspect thing was coming up she was pretty sure that it was the power. She had a rough idea as to what happened, but she wasn't exactly sure how she got Deathwing's power.

It had all happened around the time Deathwing had been killed. She was pretty sure that had happened around a month ago, which was around the time she had started feeling weird. She wasn't feeling bad, just off, not right. From what had happened to her as a drake in training, she thought that as soon as Deathwing had died, the rest of the power that he still had was plunged into her, making her aspect like.

She wasn't completely sure if that was the case, but she had no other theories as to how it happened other than that. She knew she wasn't exactly an aspect, but she was the closest thing to one on the planet. Sure, there were the former aspects, but there power was gone, and she had some of the aspect power. The former aspects were done with, they had fulfilled there jobs, and now the power was searching for new 'hosts' of a sort, at least, that's what Vela thought.

If she inherited the power from Deathwing, didn't that mean that the other flights also had someone who inherited the power? If that was true, didn't that mean that there were four other people in the world, dealing with the same exact problem she was dealing with?

This new information put Vela into a deep trance of thought. If there were others like her out there, then what did it mean? Were there really people just like her out there in the world of Azeroth? Perhaps they could help her, and she could help them. there was even the possibility that those people didn't know about their power yet.

She bit her lip, a habit of hers, wondering if this was the case. If it was, then so many new possibilities opened up for her, some good, and some bad. She knew she wasn't as powerful as the former aspects, but at the moment, she was as strong as they could get. If there were other people out there who had inherited the power, did that make her an aspect?

This would mean that she had new responsibilities to the world, new responsibilities to the earth beneath her feet to be specific. This would mean that she was in charge of caring for the land and the environment, the task that had formerly belonged to Deathwing, before he went mad and began to destroying Azeroth, the complete opposite of what he was supposed to do.

But how was vela supposed to do all of this? She had no idea how to move land with magic and fix the earth. She had grown up in a time where her race's only goal was to destroy the world, and every living creature on it. She hadn't lived in the times when they were a peaceful, friendly race, when they had healed the world and made it better for living.

All she knew was how to kill and how to destroy, that was really all she had learned from her flight. And some of those skills had come in handy from time to time, but if she was supposed to be the good aspect who actually did her job, they wouldn't work out.

But from what she had seen, the world seemed to be managing just fine without her. The shamans, from what she had heard, had been healing the world just as well as any aspect could. And if they could o it, then she didn't really have to worry about the world crumbling down beneath her. Besides, maybe it was better that way. The old gods couldn't corrupt the entire mass of the shamans, it would take to long and too much brain power. But they could easily snap her mind in half, if they found her and tried hard enough. So maybe it was better that she didn't heal the earth like the earth warder would. That way, the world wouldn't go through another cataclysm.

She stopped dead in her tracks as she heard what sounded to be someone yelling. It had been a faint sound, a sound a mortal would never have been able to hear, but her draconic super hearing was able to pick it up. At first she thought she might have misheard it or that it was just the wind, but then she heard it again. She strained her ears to hear and heard it three more times, and she knew it was definitely someone yelling.

She contemplated going to see who it was, knowing that it could easily be a cultist who had survived or a dangerous predator. It didn't seem to be a yell of terror, but rather a roar of rage. She had heard it before, but she just couldn't place the sound in her still sleepy mind.

But then she realized that anything that was evil in these woods probably wouldn't be able to handle an extremely powerful black dragon who had the capability to incinerate an entire twilight cultist encampment in less than a second. Besides, that was the worst case scenario. She was pretty strong in her humanoid form, and she dabbled in the necromancy area. Of course, she refrained from using such magic. For the most part, that is.

So she slowly crept through the forest, headed in the direction of the yelling. She just wanted to see what it was, she didn't want to encounter it, so she was making sure to be extra careful that she didn't make any noise. She was pretty sure she could fend off any wild animal, but she didn't feel like risking the chance of getting wounded, or getting even more gore on herself.

She walked slowly, taking one step at a time as she tip toed through the forest, heading towards the source of the odd sound. She pasted a variety of different plants, all stiff and flowerless from the cold temperatures of the continent, and a few squirrels and rabbits. The forest floor was littered with the dead prickly leaves of the pine trees, which did not help Vela's bare and tender feet. She had to clench her teeth to keep herself from cursing every time one jabbed her foot, and she silently cursed herself for not putting her boots back on when she had left.

Her pace was slow, but she managed, despite her slightly impatient attitude. With every step she took the odd sound got louder and more clear, until she could tell that it was not yelling, but rather roaring. Her curiosity grew as she learned this information, and she crept just a little faster through the forest. Every once and a while a gust of cold wind would wash over her, and she would shiver. She really wished she had out on the rest of her armor when she had woke up that morning, but she had forgotten, and she would just have to live with the cold.

As she walked deeper and deeper into the woods, the trees and plants began to thin out, and the sharp thorn like leaves of the pines that once covered the forest floor began to disperse, revealing a light brown dusty dirt ground, with patches of grass here and there. Vela suppressed a sigh of relief as her cut up feet fell upon the soft ground, and she smiled slightly.

As she got even closer she recognized that the loud roaring belonged to that of a large beast, most likely a large cat, she guessed. She could also here the ripping and grinding of something tender, and for a second she thought it was prey being killed. But she heard no death squeal from any animals, so she guessed that it wasn't.

As the sound became so loud and so clear that she thought the creature making that could jump out of the trees out of no where, she reached the edge of a small clearing, surrounded by bushes and shrubs of all kinds, mostly large thorn bushes with menacingly large thorns. She silently knelt down, trying to see under the under brush.

But the brambles were too thick around the edge of the clearing, and she could see nothing through them. She silently cursed herself, and tried to figure out a way to see the creature in the clearing without being seen herself. She looked up to see if she could look above the brambles, but the shrubs were too high, and she would easily be seen.

She looked around, wondering if this entire walk had been pointless. She noticed a young birch tree lose by, its branches scanning out over the walls of thorns and over the clearing, and its limbs covered in a curtain of leaves. Vela stared at the tree, an idea slowly forming in her head. She could easily climb the tree, the only obstacle would be climbing it without drawing attention to herself. But the tree's trunk looked very smooth, so she didn't think there would be much of a problem.

The idea, which was now a plan, finished forming in her head, and she smiled as she went over the plan in her head. She began to crawl over to the base of the tree, being extremely careful not to make any noise. The ground here was mostly dirt, so she didn't have much problem with that. She stopped as she reached the base of the tree and slowly began to stand up, going over the plan in her mind.

She looked at two branches on the tree, only about a foot above her, which formed a shape similar to a V. She grabbed the two branches with each of her hands and began to pull herself up, walking up the side of the tree. She made some noise, but not enough to attract any attention. The climb was easy for her, considering her immense strength. Even in her humanoid form she was still very strong.

She got to the top and pulled herself up, then perched herself on the branch closest to the clearing. She still wasn't able to see what was in the clearing, but she could see some of the clearing. She sighed in annoyance, then looked around for a way to see into the clearing better. She spotted a long branch not very far from where she perched, hanging over the edge of the clearing.

She bit her lip in indecision. She could go over to the branch, but there was a large chance that she would be noticed. But then again, She could probably take anything that was in the clearing.

she held onto the branch above her as she stretched her left leg over to where the branch was, landing her foot carefully on the branch in a spot where it looked unlikely to break. She reached out her left arm and grabbed a nearby branch, and quickly pulled the rest of her body over to the branch, making it shake slightly. But the creature in the clearing was luckily unable o hear her, it was roaring too loudly to hear anything else.

She stabilized herself on the branch, keeping it from shaking. She took deep breaths of air, regaining her composure and giving her some extra energy. She crouched down on the branch, looking like a lioness ready to pounce on its prey. She looked down into the clearing and smiled. Down in the clearing was a rather large cat, with blueberry fur and white glowing eyes, slashing at a small shrub in front of it. It had the distinct facial markings of a druid, and a pendant wrapped around its neck to show its social status. The gem around its neck was a pearl, signaling high status, most likely high political status.

Vela had memorized all of this during her training as a black drake. She had memorized all of the races of the horde and the alliance, and many of the neutral races as well. She knew a vast array of different spells and magic, and the magic users themselves. She had begun training as a spy before she was apprenticed to Deathwing, and she had learned a lot.

She druid roared as its claws raked against the bush, catching on thorns and causing its flesh to rip open. Blood began to flow from the cat's paw, but it was only enough to be visible on the druids darker fur. The cat growled, but continued to slash at the thorn bush, ripping up its paws and causing more and more blood to flow from the cuts.

Finally the druid stumbled back, its paws ripped up. The druid snarled, and began to shift into it's mortal form. It continued to growl in pain during the process. It shifted into the small form of a female night elf, with a long green braid going down her back. Vela smiled as she recognized the familiar form of Miri. The night elf's hands were ripped up, causing fresh blood to flow out.

The night elf examined her hands, still growling. She grunted, and sat down in the grass, beginning a spell which caused her hands to glow green. Vela guessed it was a healing spell, and she decided that this was as good a time as ever to make herself noticed.

She looked down into the clearing, which was directly below her, and jumped down from her perch, landing perfectly on her feet. She made a large thump as she hit the ground, causing Miri to whirl around, green braid flying, with a tense and angry face. She relaxed slightly when she saw it was only Vela, but all of her muscles were still tensed.

"What are you doing here?!" she hissed.

This did not make Vela worried, as was intended. In fact, she smiled slightly, a bit of a dark habit of hers.

"Oh, you know, watching you rip up wildlife and what not." she said "Funny, I thought night elves were all about protecting nature, especially druids."

Miri put her hands down, which had been clenched and up in the air. "Well, I'm not exactly a druid anymore."

Vela raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Do tell," she said.

"None of your damn business," said Miri. The night elf whirled around and headed over to the edge of the clearing, towards an area with less trees, her large muscles still extremely tensed.

Vela sighed in annoyance. She really wasn't liking how her relationship with Miri was going so far. She wanted to be at least friendly with the druid, but that didn't seem to be happening any time soon.

She cleaned her mind of the thoughts and walked over to where Miri was, her arms still crossed and her mouth turned downwards in a frown. The night elf was crouched down on the ground at the edge of the clearing, doing something with her still bleeding hands. Vela was silent as she crept over, looking over the druids shoulder at what she was doing.

The druid was crouched down next to a small leather bag that Vela hadn't noticed before, wrapping her hands in what looking to be straps of linen cloth. She wrapped them quickly and tightly, but it wasn't enough. Vela could already see spots on the cloth where blood was coming through, turning the once white cloth a dark red.

Vela shook her head, wondering how the druid couldn't know these types of things. Druids were healers, right? She walked over to Miri, making the night whirl around and glare at her. She ignored the look and crouched down by the druid, taking both of her hands and examining them. Miri quickly snapped them back, glaring at Vela.

Vela sighed and rolled her eyes. "You've cut into too many veins," she said "You'll bleed out if you don't get healing."

"And why should I trust you?" asked Miri "After all, you're a black dragon. Scum."

Vela was slightly insulted by the 'scum' part, but she let it slide. The world had a good reason to call her any names, and 'scum' wasn't that bad.

"Look," she said "If you don't want to die, you're going to need healing."

Miri eyed her wearily, but the blood flowing out of her bandages seemed to convince her that she needed healing. She slowly put her arms out in front of her and Vela smiled. She took each arm in one hand and examined them. She hadn't performed any healing magic in a very long time, but she could manage. After all, necromancy couldn't be that different from healing.

She closed her eyes and began to focus on her inner magic, which seemed much bigger than it had before. It was an orange mass deep within her, tinted with the black magic of her kind. It was pure magic, the purest there could be. It was the true form of power, and it thrilled Vela. She grabbed for some of the magic, letting it flow through her body and towards her hands, giving her a fuzzy feeling.

She guided through her core and towards her hands, where it waited to be transferred into Miri's body. She reached the tips of her hands and shoved it through, pushing it into Miri hands. She felt the small bit of magic leave her body, and she opened her eyes. She let go of Miri's hands, which had a faint orange glow to them.

Miri held her hands up to her face and examined them, her eyes filled with curiosity. The orange magic began to fade from her hands, and she began to unwrap the bandages. She twisted her arms around as she examined the almost flawless skin. Where there had been cuts less than a few minutes ago there was now light purple skin, near perfect.

Miri stopped looking at her healed hands and looked up at Vela with a hard expressionless face. "Thank you." she said, with no emotion.

The night elf grabbed her bag and stood, looking Vela over for a few seconds with the same hard stare. Then she abruptly turned and quickly walked away, she was out of the clearing within a matter of seconds, and soon Vela could no longer hear her footsteps.

Vela stood and sighed, wondering if the druid would always be so wary of her. Vela knew that the night elf was hiding something, something that had happened to that made her hate Vela on instinct. And whatever it was, Vela that she would let it go and try to trust Vela. Because if she didn't, Vela could tell that the druid would crack one day, and do something she would regret.

And when she cracked, Vela would not hold back. Vela had made a promise to herself that she would live through this. And if Miri got in her way, then she would do whatever it took to get her out of the way. And if that meant shedding some blood, then Vela would shed some blood. She would not hold back. She would not hesitate. She would fight Miri, and she would win. Even if it meant someone else died.

**_I hope I gave you some information about Miri to digest. I am slightly conflicted as to where her character will go in this story, she was an unexpected character. But an important one, none the less. Well, I can't give away too much. I hope this chapter was enjoyable, I plan for the next one to be more exciting._****_  
_**


	14. Crash Landing

_**Dear readers: First off, I would like to thank all of you for reading! And a special thanks to all of you who have reviewed!**_

_**Now, onto chapter 14...**_

Vela found herself standing in front of a rather happy Kyragosa, with what seemed to be a million pounds of luggage strapped to her scaly back and a giggling Miri doubled over on the sideline, not even trying to hide her obvious amusement from the grumpy black dragon.

Vela had arrived back at camp not long after Miri had, where she found Kyragosa as happy as ever, which was odd since she had just woken up, and babbling to Miri about their plans to go to a small town that day. Vela hadn't caught much information of where they were going from the small babbles she was able to hear, but from the information she had obtained she could assume that the little town was far from here.

Which was art of the reason that she was in her dragon form. As she had entered the camp she had been greeted by the energized blue dragon Kyragosa, who had given her an abnormally large smile and had shoved a large bag in her hands, saying that it was time to go.

Vela had merely looked at her in bewilderment as the blue dragon began to pile practically all of the luggage at her feet at an incredibly fast speed, and the only explanation she had given Vela was short and unhelpful: "Newbies carry the luggage, silly whelp. Being an aspect doesn't give you any excuse."

Still bewildered, Vela had simply asked, "And how do you expect me to carry all of this? There is at least fifty pounds of stuff here, and that's at the least! I can't carry all of that in my mortal form!"

The blue dragon had simply smiled and shook her head in amusement. "The solution is plain to the eye little whelp," she had said "You'll just have to go into your dragon form!"

And with that the blue dragon had begun to pile more luggage at Vela's feet, leaving Vela even more confused than she had been in the first place. She sighed, wondering what on earth the strange dragon meant.

"What do you mean?" she had called out "I can't change, the reds will sense me!"

Kyragosa had stopped in mid walk and turned around, shaking her head in what seemed to be disappointment. "You need to catch on quicker little whelp," she had said "I will cover your mind scent while you fly us there." and with that she had went back to packing up camp.

"What do you mean, fly _us_ there?" Vela had called out.

Not even bothering to turn around Kyragosa had said, "You are going to fly Miri and I over to the boundary of the city, and carry the luggage."

"What?!" Vela had exclaimed, not believing was she had heard.

Kyragosa had sighed in mid hunch, as she had been picking up a bag, and turned around. "You are going to fly us in your dragon form. But this time, can you not go in your rage form? Your rage form is a little... terrifying."

"My rage form?" asked Vela, getting slightly distracted, not realizing what she had said until it had already spilled out of her mouth.

"Yes, your rage form," Kyragosa had said "The form you take on when you become the embodiment of rage. I would prefer to just turn into your normal dragon form though, It's much safer for Miri that way."

While this was going on Miri had been sitting on the sidelines, sharpening her dagger while giving Vela an ice cold stare. Vela had only been able to see this once, and when she had, she had merely shuddered, wondering what morbid thoughts ran through the night elves head.

Vela sighed and shook the thoughts of her rage form from her mind. "Never mind that," she said, Kyragosa half listening from her slumped position over her books, "What do you mean I'm going to fly us over there? Why do I have to fly both of you and the luggage? Can't you fly Miri?"

She cast a glance over her shoulder at the druid, who was still glaring at her coldly as she sharpened the dagger. She help the blade up to her face, examining it while still managing to glare at vela, and said "What's the matter, dragon? Afraid I'll gut you from behind?" She twisted her wrist, making it appear that she would throw the dagger, but the dagger stayed in her hand.

Vela couldn't help but flinch at the movement, and Miri smiled slightly.

"Oh, enough of that nonsense Miri!" called Kyragosa "You couldn't through a dagger for your life! You're a druid not a rogue, remember?"

Vela chuckled slightly while Miri huffed and went back to sharpening her blade, bot looking at Vela, well, at least not that much.

Vela shuddered once more and turned back to Kyragosa soon enough to see her stack yet another bag at Vela's feet, bringing the stack up to Vela's torso. She sighed, wishing Kyragosa would just stop and listen for a second.

"So why can't you fly Miri?" Vela asked, to tired to yell it.

"Because," said Kyragosa as she picked up another bag and began to walk over to Vela "I can't fly and conceal your mind scent." she plopped the bag down by Vela's feet and dusted her hands off, then stood up and looked at Vela questioningly, "Didn't they teach you anything in that black dragon school?"

Vela sighed. "So I have to carry you, Miri," she shuttered slightly at the druids name "And all of our luggage?"

"That sounds about right," said Kyragosa with a too big smile. She slapped Vela on the shoulder, creating a small dust cloud, and said "Don't worry whelp, you're an aspect now. You'll be fine. Besides," she whacked the back of Vela's legs with her staff, making Vela fall to her knees "You need the exercise. All of those years and that prison must have made you as flimsy as a newborn whelp,"

Vela grunted and stood, slightly irritated. She turned around and watched Kyragosa pick up one final bag at the edge of the clearing, a brown leather satchel, and swing it around her shoulder. When she saw Vela standing there she raised and eyebrow questioningly.

"What are you doing?" she asked "Dragon up! We have a village to get to!"

Vela sighed and rolled her eyes. She began to relax all of her muscles, preparing for the shift, and closed her eyes. She had done the transformation a good number of times, but it always took her a little longer than most dragons. The other night had been an act of adrenaline, enabling her to transform fast. She delved into the depths of her core, heading towards her inner magic. She found the core quickly, and began to pull the magic out. She bent it to her will, and she could feel her outside body begin to shift and mold, growing bigger and clicking together as her bones came into place.

The transformation felt different than it had the other night she had done it, as if she was transforming into a different body shape than before. She was confuse, but she ignored as the transformation completed, and she opened her eyes, returning to her original state of mind.

She felt odd as she looked through her dragon eyes, she hadn't looked through them in a while. Everything looked smaller, and she felt bigger and more powerful. She felt different than she had the other night, more stable and less, angry. Her vision was enhance as were all of her senses, and it took her a few moments to get used to all of the things she was now aware of in the world.

She unfolded her wings, which smashed into the trees before they were even fifty percent done coming out. She grunted, and lifted her head up high. She was surprised to see that at her full height she towered over the tall trees, which grew as high as 300 feet there. She looked down at herself, taking in everything that had changed about her since her power transformation.

She was definitely an adult, that was for sure. Her scales where a dark midnight black, except for her underbelly which was slightly lighter. She had long horns reaching back over her head, and three pair of smaller horns, one over her eyes, and two where the head met the neck. She looked at her wings and saw that they had spikes at the end of each fold, and a spike at the top of each wing. Her claws where noticeably sharper and where a glistening white. And she had a small row of spikes going down her spin. But she was slim too, slimmer than Deathwing. She was definitely more bulky and more muscular, but she still maintained her slim female dragon figure, well, as much as she could.

She had changed a lot, and she could tell it would take a while to get used to all of the changes that had come with her power exchange. She marveled at how large she was now, she could easily take on pretty much anything.

But her marveling was interrupted by something heavy being dropped on her back, causing her to fall down to the ground slightly. She stretched her neck back and saw that Kyragosa had begun to move the luggage once again, only this time she was piling it up on Vela's back. Vela growled slightly, but Kyragosa took no notice of it, she just continued to smiled and pile luggage on Vela's back.

Vela grunted, knowing there was no way she could get out of this now, and lay down, folding her front legs and resting her head on them. She could hear Miri sharpening her dagger not far behind her, but she paid no attention to it. She wasn't afraid of Miri, just, worried, in a way.

As her back was loaded with even more luggage, Vela could hear Kyragosa humming some cheerful tune and Vela growled, wishing she didn't have to listen to the too happy humming. She was pretty sure that Kyragosa wasn't doing this because she was a newbie. She was probably trying to get out of carrying the luggage or two people by dumping the work on Vela.

"Stupid smart dragon..." Vela couldn't help but think.

But there was really something to happy about the blue dragon to Vela, she was just to cheery. But Vela was unable to think about this for long, because she felt a hard whack against her flank, causing her to jolt up. She turned around, glaring, and saw that it had been Kyragosa who had whacked her with her staff once again.

Vela grunted and looked at her questioningly. But the blue dragon had already begun to do something else, which was tightly wrapping a rope around Vela's body, which secured the luggage to her back. Kyragosa finished quickly and made her way to stand in front of Vela, her hands on her hips with a large smiled on her face and Miri laughing on the sidelines, not trying to hide her amusement.

Vela turned and growled at Miri, who only stopped and glared. "Be careful," said Vela in a snake like voice "I might just through you off my back accidentally."

The night elf only huffed and crossed her arms, glaring at Vela out of the corner of her eye.

"Girls, girls, your both horrifying," said Kyragosa, who now had her arms crossed "So stop fighting and get a move on, we have to get to this town by nightfall, and I'd prefer it to be sooner."

Miri rolled her eyes, her arms still crossed, and began to walk over to Vela's neck. Kyragosa did the same, still smiling, and began to climb up Vela's leg, which won a a growl from Vela. Vela swung her head around, watching Miri closely. Miri paused at the base of Vela's foot to glare at Vela for a second, then began to climb up her leg.

Vela watched her closely as the night elf clambered up her leg, using her scales as footholds, and sat down on Vela's leg not far behind the still humming Kyragosa. Vela noticed that the night elf was carrying a dagger on her belt, and Vela hoped she wasn't dumb enough to use it. After all, if you injure your transportation, the transportation kicks you out. But then again, she wouldn't really mind throwing Miri off. It would only be once, and she was a druid, so she could fly.

Vela smiled slightly at the thought, but dismissed it quickly. She didn't want to start anything with the druid. Miri already seemed to hate her enough, and Vela hadn't even done anything. She didn't want to make the situation worse.

She looked back at Kyragosa, ready to jump in the air as soon as the blue dragon said so. She spread her wings out as far as she could in the small clearing, and prepared her legs for the jump. She was excited for the flight, having spent so long without even stretching her wings was torture, and she was glad that she would finally be able to fly.

Kyragosa beat her feet lightly against Vela's sides twice while saying, "Up up and away, whelp!"

Vela quickly did the last preparations, putting all of her wait into her haunches for the jump, And jumped into the sky, leaving a cloud of dust on the ground that had once been beneath her. She flew as fast as she could up into the sky, her wings flapping vigorously as she made her way to the clouds. She poked her head through a soft cloud, and stopped flapping, folding her wings around her. She stopped in the air for a second, then began to fall at a mad speed, her missile shaped body making it easier to travel through the air.

She watched as the trees beneath her became closer and closer, and she prepared to open of her wings. She waited, waiting for the exact second to begin to glide. It would be a quick movement, hard for most dragons, but she was a flyer. She had received elite training from an aspect, this would be simple for her. The moment came, and she quickly spread out her wings, using all of her strength to keep herself from falling into the forest, the tops of the trees brushing against her flank. She lifted herself up slightly, making her way up to the low hanging clouds where she would be concealed from anyone looking at the sky below her. She began to glide across the sky, letting the updraft guide her.

She smiled as the wind washed over her scales, glad to be back in the air. All of that time she had spent in the red dragon's prison had been awful to her, never being able to fly. She had felt trapped within her own body, unable to do what she had been born to do. But now she was back, and no one would ever be able to take this away from her ever again.

She embraced the clouds, letting the white puffy gas disperse around her as she slowly glided through it, forgetting everything else in the world. All she thought of was enjoying that moment, that sweet little moment where all of the problems she was faced with didn't exist, and she could just fly away from them, far away, until she got to a place where they no longer existed.

Of course, this too was interrupted, as it inevitably had to be. She felt a whack against her neck, making her snap back to reality. She groaned, and whicled her head around to see what was the matter. Of course it had been Kyragosa, who had whacked her yet again with her staff. Vela had the urge to rip the staff from her hands and snap it in half with her teeth, but she refrained.

The blue dragon was smiling happily, as if the whole jolt ride that had happened not long ago had never even happened at all, where as Miri was slumped over in her seat behind Kyragosa, looking like she was ready to hurl.

"Yes?" asked Vela.

"The town is that way," said Kyragosa,a using her staff to point to the right. "And next time don't down any of those fancy air tricks. It might not bother me, but Miri can't turn into a dragon in mid fall."

Vela grunted, and began to turn her head back to the front. But she paused in mid turn, looking back at Miri, and said "If you hurl, try not to get it on the scales,"

Miri looked up at her, giving her a death stare, before going back to her hunched position on Vela's neck. Vela grunted and whirled her head around to face the sky in front of her, and began to turn slightly to the right, looking at the sea that was far in the distance. She guessed they were headed to a water town or a small port city, which was what most towns and cities were in Northrend. After all, no one wanted to live in the forests of Northrend. That was where all of the really bad things were. Sure there was the occasional murloc or naga attack, but nothing that couldn't be handled.

The ground beneath Vela passed quickly, and she noticed that she was a lot faster in the air now. It might have just been the nice updraft of the air that was blowing her in the right direction, but she was fairly certain that it had to do with her recent transformation. She could feel the new strength she had acquired with every flap of her wings, and she could sense the power she held flowing through every part of her body, giving her a fuzzy feeling. She wasn't used to this, she had never been a magic user.

But for now she ignored the fuzzy feeling, focusing on flying to the town, wherever that might be. She didn't know how far away it was, and she had no idea how fast she was flying, but she hoped they would get there by sundown, because that was when the red dragons came out from the prison and worked on whatever missions they had. They may have been looking for her, too.

She bet they were still looking for her. She had only escaped a few days ago, and they were bound to still be looking. The surprise visit from Dalgris had proved that much. And even though she could take them now, she didn't want to have any encounters with them. because, even thought she could beat them, it wasn't a good idea to leave a dead red dragon just laying around for the world to see. because then she would have a lot bigger problem to deal with. Then they would know that she was there, and that she was capable of killing them.

And if they knew she was capable of killing them, she would become an even bigger target, because they would want to kill her before she could harm any of them. They would no longer be trying to capture her, they would be trying to kill her. And that would make escaping Northrend and getting as far from the red flight as possible pretty much impossible.

So, they would have to get to relative safety but nightfall, that way it would be less likely that any red dragons actually found them. Vela didn't think that they would follow her this far out, but she couldn't be sure. The red dragons had bases all over Northrend, So they could be tracking her at that very moment.

She sighed in irritation. She wasn't really worried, more like stressed out. Her situation wasn't a simple one to fix. She had to get out of Northrend and hide away, and this aspect stuff wasn't helping her out.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by a large 'thud' at the base of her neck. She grunted, wondering what it was that the blue dragon wanted now, and slowly turned her head back. She looked back into the glowing blue eyes of the high elf form of Kyragosa, who had an expressionless face, as if she had never whacked Vela in the neck.

"Yes?" asked Vela in a slightly irritated tone.

"See those white mountains over there?" asked Kyragosa, pointing slightly to the left with her staff.

Vela turned her head back to the front and looked in the direction she was pointing to. There, not very far in the distance, was a row of tall snow capped mountains, there peaks pointing right though the clouds and high into the sky. She turned back to Kyragosa and nodded.

"Head there. Towards the pass in between them if you can see it," said Kyragosa.

Confused, Vela asked, "Why? That would take us into Grizzly Hills,"

"As it should," said Kyragosa "We will need to be passing though, and that's the best way to go."

Vela nodded, all though she was still slightly confused. She hadn't expected that they would need to go though to Grizzly Hills to get to the town, it would take a good four hours at the least to get through the pass, as heavy snow storms usually covered the skies of the pass, and that was at the least. It would probably take six hours to get through, and that would mean traveling during nightfall.

Vela began to turn herself in the direction of the mountains, which was approaching fast. She was surprised at how far they had traveled in so little time. Either the mountains had been closer than she thought, or she had gotten much faster during her transformation.

She slowed down slightly as the mountains became close enough to pass through and went down closer to the land, where she could see the pathway more easily and follow it better. As she got closer to the mountains, a gust of cold wind her her face, and she felt small specks of snow hit her face. She grunted, disliking the cold, and went further.

She entered the pass slowly, being hit by a flurry of snow as the mountains engulfed them, giving them next to no sight. Out of the corners of her eyes she could vaguely see the steep sloping sides of the mountains, but the falling snow soon made the mountains invisible. She struggled against the wind, straining her muscles to fly forward. The wind was against her here, making travel even faster.

She could barely see the pathway beneath her, and she could only hope that she was going the right way. She could easily see how it would be easy for someone to stray from the path in this weather, with the snow concealing almost everything from view.

A she flew deeper and deeper into the mountains, Vela found that the storm got even worse, and the path became pretty much invisible beneath her. And the winds were even stronger too, making flying all the more harder. At some points the wind was too strong for her, and she found herself being pushed back, growling as the harsh wind stung her eyes.

She was cold too, dangerously cold. Dragons could only take so much cold, and Vela found herself pushing the limit. Every once in a while she would consider using some of her magic to help keep her warm, but she decided to wait as long as she could before doing that. Using her magic would suck at her energy reserves, which wasn't much better than her situation at the moment.

Every once in a while she would look back at the two passengers on her back, and what she saw worried her at times. Kyragosa seemed fine, as she had altered her appearance so that she had a large furry coat on. But Miri, who was sitting behind her, was hugging herself and shivering, the snow turning her once forest green hair into a snowy white.

Vela had asked her if she wanted them to stop and rest, but she had always refused, her stubbornness and dignity getting in the way of accepting the fact that she was freezing to death.

Vela had always watched her with her mind, only looking into her conscience enough to see her energy levels and to see how much longer she had until the cold got to her.

She did this for a while, never straying far for very long. But as they came to the center of the storm, Vela found herself unable to withstand the wind, and she she was pushed back against the mountain, making her mental link break. It had taken her a few seconds to recover, and by then it had been too late. She looked back quickly and watched as Miri slid off her back, falling down to the ground.

"No!" yelled Vela as she dove down to catch the falling druid.

But the wind was not her friend and she found herself being jostled around as the huge gusts of wind messed with her flight path, and she watched as she saw Miri fall down and down, the snow threatening to conceal her from sight.

Vela fought to free herself from the bounds of the wind, but it was too strong. she couldn't beat it. She wasn't strong enough, she had already used up most of her energy earlier.

She roared in terror as Miri was concealed by the snow. She had to do something, and fast. She found herself pulling at her magic, using it to fill up the energy she had lost. It was a dangerous thing to do, but it had to be down. She used the magic energy and pushed against the wind, heading in the direction she had last seen Miri.

Her eyes dashed around frantically, looking for the druid as she dove down the side of the mountain at an insanely fast speed. Se looked around, worry bubbling up inside her as she looked around but saw nothing. But she kept going down. Miri had to be alive, she just had to.

Then she spotted her, an unconscious figure falling down the side of the mountain, the ground dangerously close to her. Vela pulled out all of her magic quickly and dove down, outstretching a claw as she came closer to Miri, bringing her closer to the ground as well. Her claw began to close around Miri, and she quickly snatched her out of the sky, pulling her close to her chest as the ground approached them. The ground was less than a hundred feet away now, and it was fast approaching.

At Vela's speed, she couldn't stop in time, and she was forced to pull up and try and crash land in a position that wouldn't kill her. She pulled up, much to the winds restraint, and began to fly sideways as the ground closed around her. She tried to continue to fly, but her energy was all gone, and she smashed into the ground, making her hiss in agony.

She slid through the snow, not stopping for another quarter mile as the ground forced her to stop. But she was already unconscious by the time she finally stopped, the energy that had been drawn out of her being to much.

All of her muscles went limp, the sleep taking over her body. Her claws uncurled, and Miri fell to the ground, a weak and crumpled night elf curled up on the ground. Vela could vaguely see her, as her vision was fading. She closed her eyes as the last ounce of sleep over took her, and she could vaguely remember Kyragosa yelling something she could no longer make out.

She took a deep breath and embraced the darkness, wondering what lay ahead for her now in this unforgiving land of never ending darkness, of which she ad no escape.

_**This is the start of a very exciting adventure. I'm surprised that I got this chapter done today, but I did, somehow.**_

_**Reviews are greatly appreciated and make me write chapters faster.**_


	15. Miri

_**Dear readers: As always, a big thanks for reading this story, and a special thanks to all of you who have reviewed,  
**_

_**Now, Chapter 15...**_

Vela found herself sitting in a dry desert, the hot wind getting sand in her scales and her feet partially emerged in sand. It was night time, and the two Azerothian moons were shining brightly down on her. She found that she was much smaller here, drake sized, actually. And the aspect power she had once felt inside her at all times was gone, replaced with only a mere fragment of that power.

In fact, she was a drake. She was in her drake body that she hadn't been in for centuries.

"What the hell?" she growled "How the hell did I get here?"

This place had a familiar feel to it, but she couldn't quite place where she was. She had been in many deserts, or maybe she had just been in one really big one? She wasn't sure, but she had been in a desert before. Which one, she wasn't sure. She didn't really care about mortal geography, so she didn't learn it. All she knew was that there was land, and that there was water. And mountains, deserts, and stuff like that. But she never bothered with learning the names. She had no use of learning that.

She grunted and moved the sand with her feet, which was orange, and tried to figure out if it felt familiar to her. But then again, sand felt the same any where, so she didn't really get anything out of that.

But it was hot there, very hot. And it was night time, too. It was so hot, she could have sworn she saw one of those balls of dried up grass blew by not that long ago. Luckily she was cold blooded, so the heat didn't bother her too much. She actually kind of liked it since she had spent the last century or so in Northrend, the coldest place known to dragonkind.

She looked around, stilling wondering what the hell this was. This obviously wasn't reality, since she was a drake and she was in the middle of a desert. Unless she had been transformed into a drake and then teleported to a random desert.

She looked around, still getting the sense that she had been ere before, but still not being able to place just exactly where she was. As she looked around the humongous sandbox, she thought sh could see what looked to be fire in the distance, and the dark outline of buildings. She narrowed her eyes, trying to see what it was, but couldn't really see much from her position in the desert.

She grunted in annoyance and began to walk towards it, her paws slipping in the sand. She grunted and stretched out her wings, flapping them as she prepared to jump into the sky and fly. She put all of her strength into her haunches and leapt into the sky, which was surprisingly easier than she had remembered it being when she was a drake.

She was flying fast, too. Too fast for a drake to fly. She aimed for the camp, which came fast. The fire grew brighter, and she was able to make out the shape of tents and small figures which she guessed where people. But she also saw a bigger shape, and stared in confusion. What on earth could it be? But as she stared in confusion, trying to tell what the figure was, she could hear people yelling beneath her, and she began to descend out of the sky and towards the camp.

She landed with a large thud, and a large cloud of sand surrounded her feet for a few moments. But the cloud of sand eventually settled, and she found herself being approached by five mortals, humans from what she could tell, who were waving their hands and yelling something of which she could not yet hear clearly enough.

She saw that they were wearing long black robes, and almost all of them had their faces hidden with the cowls of there robes. At first she thought they were attacking, but then she realized that they were smiling, and there voices were of happiness, not of anger or rage. She was still confused, but she was even more confused when she was bulldozed to the ground by something very heavy and very scaly.

She growled and pushed the large thing off of her, fearing that she was being attacked after all. She heard a surprised screech, and she quickly got up, shaking the sand from her scales. She was met face to face by a set of bewildered amber eyes, and she saw that she was standing in front of a male black dragon, who was only slightly larger than her.

She instinctively prepared for a fight, a growl making itself known in her throat. The people around her stopped, looking at her in confusion.

"Velathelina, what's wrong?" asked the male black dragon.

Vela growled even deeper. "Who are you? How do you know my name?" she hissed.

The dragon looked stunned, and he took a small step forward. "Velathelina, it's me, Zarefrion," he said "Don't you remember me? I'm your mate!"

"My what?!" asked Vela, stunned "I have none! I would never mate with a black dragon!"

Zarefrion backed away slightly, looking slightly worried. "Velathelina, did something happen to you while you were out?"

"Broodmother Velathelina, what is the matter?" vela snapped her attention down to a formal looking man, who had a look of confusion written across his face.

Vela backed away, wondering what was going on. Who were these people? And what were they talking about? She had no mate, and she was definitely not a brood mother!

She roared and backed away slowly, flames forming at the back of her mouth. Her eyes dashed from person to person, wondering what she should do. This definitely wasn't the real world, something was wrong. But everything looked so real, how could it not be? As her eyes darted around the scene, looking for answers that weren't there, her mind felt hazy and fuzzy, and she began to feel immense pain all over her body.

She groaned, but it didn't come out right. She looked around and saw that the people in front of her were disappearing, everything was vanishing right in front of her eyes. But before she could question any of it, she felt herself slipping back into reality, the world returning to her.

She was thrown back into reality so quickly that at first she couldn't tell the difference between what was real and what had all been a dream. But she was able to figure it out quickly enough once she felt a cold, snowy gust wash over her flank, and for once she was glad to be in Northrend.

She blinked open her eyes, which had a layer of crust over them, and looked around at the scene laid out in front of her. Everything was hazy and blurry, and it took her a few moments to regain her vision. She saw that she was in some sort of cave, with tall walls surrounding her and a small entrance in the back of the cave where she could not see. The ground was a smooth obsidian black, as opposed to the white snow covered ground outside.

She could here the roar of a fire not far from her head and she could feel it's distant warmth. She lifted her head and looked in the direction of the fire, and saw that sitting around it was Kyragosa and Miri, who were both eating what looked to be soup. Vela was still in her dragon form, and she was lying on her side on the rocky ground of the cave.

Her body felt stiff and sore, so she guessed she had been in the same position for a while. She brought up her left foot to stand and groaned as she received a sharp blast of pain. She immediately sat back down, waiting for the pain to ebb before she tried again. This time she tried very slowly, taking her time to stand up on her legs.

She looked forward at the others, who were now watching her intently, specifically Kyragosa.

"I am glad to see that you are back on your feet, Velathelina." said the blue dragon "You took a large blow when you hit the ground, and it took you a while to heal."

Vela nodded and asked in draconic, "How long?"

"Three days and three nights," said Kyragosa after swallowing a spoonful of soup "We have been in here ever since, waiting for you to wake up and for the storm to pass."

"Threes days..." muttered Vela to herself "Three days too long. The red Dragonflight could have caught up with me, and they could b a lot closer now. We must leave. Soon."

"Calm down, Velathelina," said Kyragosa, putting up her hands for emphasis "The red dragonflight _will not _catch up with us. I have been around for a long time, whelp, and I know many spells."

"8,000 years isn't long enough to know how to deflect an entire flight," said Vela "In fact, 8,000 years isn't old enough to cover someones mind scent either."

Kyragosa smiled. "You are a smart little whelp I see," she said "Perhaps I am a little older than I had said. Perhaps not. But it does not matter to you, now does it, little whelp?"

Vela snorted. "I'm not that young," she said "And maybe it doesn't matter, but it's nice to know,"

"Enough of this, little whelp. It may be nice, but we can get everything we want, now can we? No, so let us focus on getting out of here before my barriers are broken." said Kyragosa.

Vela nodded and let Kyragosa continue to speak. "Now, we are short on food, and the storm is getting lighter. So we will need to people to go out to hunt. I, however, have to stay here and keep the barriers up to keep anyone from detecting us. So, you and Miri will have to go."

"What?!" asked a shocked Miri who had just dropped her soup bowl on the ground of the cave. "Why does _she _have to come along?! Can't I do it myself?"

Kyragosa sighed and slowly said "We are low on food, so we need more. You and Vela are going to go out and hunt together so that we can get more food. You can't go out there alone, because you might freeze yourself again and go unconscious, and in that case you will need someone there to help you."

"That won't happen again," snapped Miri "I'll be fine. I can go by myself."

"No, you can't," said Kyragosa "Vela is going with you and that is final, no arguing."

Before Miri could argue further Kyragosa stood and walked out to the mouth of the cave, staring out into the snow covered mountains. Vela turned her head to look back at Miri, who had gotten up and was walking past Vela, not even giving her the slightest amount of attention. Vela growled and began to focus on her magic, preparing to change into her humanoid form.

But she was interrupted by a large 'thud' on her flank. Knowing who it was, she continued with her spell, ignoring the person she knew was right beside her. But then she received a larger thud on the top of her head, disrupting her spell and making her open her eyes.

She looked down at an impatient looking Kyragosa, and she quickly turned her head so that she was facing the blue dragon.

"Yes?" asked Vela, in an irritated voice.

"You should change into a human this time," said Kyragosa "There are many alliance mortals who travel this route, and they will attack you if you appear to be a blood elf. Besides, Miri is a night elf, alliance originally. It will look odd if she is traveling with a blood elf, a member of the horde."

"I suppose you're right," said Vela.

"You bet I am," said Kyragosa before she walked away.

Vela grunted and began to focus on her magic again, bending and twisting it to her will. It made her feel warm inside as it traveled through her body, mostly centered around her mind, where the mechanism that allowed her to change her appearance was kept.

She had seen many humans in her life time, so she was pretty certain that it wouldn't be to hard to go into her human form. She had been told many times that it was the easiest form to go into, besides her dragon form, of course.

Her magic was a glowing orange, emanating from the core of her body. She welcomed the warmth it gave of, which was much better than the harsh cold of Northrend which she hated ever so much. She was glad to be leaving the icy continent, but she wished that it wouldn't take so long. As a dragon, she hated the cold, loathed it. It made her tired and grouchy, and it drained most of her energy when she was in it.

She refocused her attention on completing the transformation, which was almost done. She finished guiding the magic through her body and opened her eyes. She felt smaller than she had in her blood elf form and lighter.

She looked over her attire and saw that she wore a floor length black robe, decorated with an assortment of black swirls, knee high black boots, black spaulders and black elbow length gloves. The gloves and spaulders were made of plate, the boots of leather and the robe of cloth. her features were the same as they had been in her blood elf form, minus the ears and eyes, long straight black hair with bangs and violet eyes this time.

She stretched her new arms, still getting used to her new body, and began to walk over to where Miri now stood at the mouth of the cave, one hand on her hip with an impatient look on her face. She carried a dagger in her other hand, which Vela was slightly confused at, since Miri was a druid.

Vela cracked her knuckles, letting out a cracking sound that sounded like nut shells being cracked, and casually strolled out of the cave, ignoring the venomous look Miri gave her. She really wasn't threatened by Miri. In fact, she found Miri's behavior partially amusing. She focused so much of her energy on making Vela know her hatred towards her when she could be focusing it on something else, something more productive, like hunting or training.

Vela was greeted by a blast of snow in the face and a cold gust of wind hitting her, making her shudder. She truly hated the cold, which was bad for her since she would probably be in Northrend for a while. She wasn't sure how to explain it, but she had a pretty good feeling that she would be in Northrend for a while. Fate seemed to like torturing her by making her stay in the coldest place on Azeroth.

She grunted as the wind passed, still rubbing her arms in hopes that it would warm her somewhat. Being a dragon and all was not good since she was stuck in the middle of the coldest place on Azeroth. The only place that could possibly be any colder was ice crown citadel, or whatever was left of it since the fall of the Lich king.

She had been by there only once, and it had been one of the worst experiences she had ever had in her long life as a dragon. And she what, seven or eight hundred years old? That might not have been long for a dragon, but she had lived long enough to have some crazy experiences. So, long story short, ice crown Citadel was cold. Beyond cold, it was hell frozen over. She wouldn't have been surprised if Kil'jaedan burst out of no where and revealed to everyone that Ice Crown Citadel was actually his fortress that had been frozen over.

She suppressed the urge to go back into the slightly warmer cave and kept moving forward, out into the worst of the storm. She could here foot steps crunching the snow behind her and Miri emerged out of the snow to walk beside Vela, her face tight and expressionless besides the frown that showed her obvious disliking to the situation.

_What's her problem? _Vela wondered _She can grow a furry pelt and get warm, I'm the one who has the serious risk of freezing to death, with the whole cold blooded thing and all!_

Vela sighed as Miri trudged past her, barely acknowledging Vela besides a slight side glance, more like a side glare, before she began to walk faster. Vela quickened her pace as the night elf was concealed by the falling snow, not wanting to lose trace of her and get lost in the storm. She really didn't know why Kyragosa had sent them out there, she was certain they had enough food to last them for weeks! And in this weather, she was pretty certain they wouldn't be catching anything, if there was even any prey out there to catch.

She briefly imagined all of the rabbits and squirrels, who had probably grown a thick layer of soft winter fur, all snug in their little burrows while the storm raged on outside. Then she imagined them secretly snickering in their burrows as they watched her walk by, thinking she was such a fool for going out in such awful weather.

_Stupid animals, _Vela couldn't help but think _Wait, did I really just think that? This stupid snow must really be getting to me now if I'm imagining puny rodents having even the slightest bit of intelligence._

She rubbed her forehead, wondering if that really was the case. She was shivering despite the fast pace she had to with hold to keep Miri within eyesight, which meant that she was pretty cold. She could handle it for now, but only for a while. Sooner or later she would have to get out of the cold or risk going unconscious, which also meant the risk of leaving her life in the hands of Miri, a risk she didn't want to take.

Miri was walking a few feet in front of her, doing her best to out walk Vela. But despite the cold weakening Vela, she was still far more faster and stronger than Miri, and this was battle she could have easily won from the start. But she decided to be a little slower, making it easier on Miri to actually play the game that was secretly going on between them.

Vela found it amusing that Miri was really that childish. It would have been obvious to anyone else that what she was doing would inevitably fail, so either Miri was too dumb to realize it, or she was too stubborn to accept the fact that Vela would beat her. Which ever one it was amused Vela to the core, and she couldn't help but smile.

But soon she got bored with this pesky speed game, knowing that she would be the ultimate winner, and she began to channel some of her energy into her leg muscles. She knew Miri wouldn't like what she was about to do, but that was her goal. She channeled it slowly and carefully, not wanting to use to much. She stopped the flow of the magic and began to time her movements as she watched Miri, a smiled tugging at her lips.

Three, two, one...

With a quick movement of her feet, she planted herself right in front of Miri, making the druid jump back in surprise when she saw Vela. She fell over, landing hard on her butt and making a small cloud of snow form around her feet. When the snow settled down Vela was not surprised to see that the druid was glaring at her, snow covering her hair.

But instead of saying she was sorry or offering Miri a hand up, she burst out laughing, doubling over as Miri stood up, her glare piercing into Vela's skin. Vela knew she probably shouldn't have done what she just had, but there was no taking it back now, and she was too amused to regret it. She hadn't expected Miri to fall over in the snow, just step back in surprise.

Miri huffed and walked past her, and Vela sighed and took control of herself, hurrying after the upset night elf. Okay, so she regretted her little prank a little bit, but not enough to say sorry to Miri. It had been a funny joke, nothing more. Not something to get pissed over and stomp away angrily. It's not like she got hurt.

Vela rushed up to the back of Miri and stretched out her arm, putting a hand on Miri's shoulder and using her strength to force her to stop.

Miri twisted her shoulder and knocked Vela's arm off, growling deep in her throat. "Buzz off, jerk!"

Now insulted, Vela reached out her arm and clenched Miri's shoulder as tightly as she could in her hand, forcing Miri to stop. She waited until she heard an agonizing groan from Miri to lessen her grip, but not enough to allow Miri to move. She wanted to give the night elf a piece of her mind.

Miri trued to jerk free, but Vela pulled her back, not letting her escape. "Oh no, you're staying right here and listening to what I have to say." she said, earning her a grunt from Miri. "First off, what's your problem? You've been a little bratt to me ever since I arrived, barely paying me any attention unless you have to and giving me zero, if not less, respect. I don't what your problem is, but fix it, because I'm taking any more shit from you. I don't deserve it. I got enough of your behavior when I was in prison."

And with that Vela let go, walking away from Miri and into the snowstorm before anything else could be said. She was fed up with Miri, she wouldn't take her attitude any longer.

"You want to know what my problem is?!" Vela whirled around to see an angry Miri, her face tight with rage, stomping over to her with her clenched fists flying behind her. "You kind _ruined _my life! Everything that I ever loved in my life was taken away from you! Everything!"

Vela, sensing that she was getting closer to the truth, pushed deeper "I don't know what my kind did to you, but I didn't do anything! I hate my 'kind', they imprisoned me for titans sake! I hat them just as much as you do! So unless you want to play with fire girl, I would advise you to knock it off!"

Vela really must have pushed the bull, because before she knew it Miri had let out a shriek and was charging towards her, both of her arms outstretched and her fists clenched and ready to punch Vela.

But Vela didn't move. Didn't even flinch. She merely waited for Miri to get close enough before putting up her hands and catching Miri's fists on her own hands, holding them tightly. It wasn't hard for Vela to do this at all, for she was far stronger than Miri ever would be.

Vela's face was expressionless as she twisted both of Miri's fists to the side, causing Miri to whimper slightly in pain. But before she could do any real damage, Vela let go, pushing Miri back slightly.

"Now," said Vela firmly "Tell me what happened." She was not asking it, she was demanding it. She wanted the truth.

"You really want to know?! Fine!" said Miri "When I was sixteen, one of _your _kind came to my village and killed_ everyone! _My mother my father, even my little sister. She had been _six, _Vela, _six. _And she had _died_ because of my lover, my dearest Saladir, was _taken _from me! We were going to get married and run away together, start the family we would inevitably have!" Vela noted that Miri's hand flew to her stomach at the mention of family, and that her eyes started brimming with tears. "You took _everything _from me! _Everything! _And it's all your fault!"

The night elf fell to her knees, her head in her hands as she cried out fresh tears. Vela frowned as she watched the druid fall apart, knowing that she had kept all of those feelings in that entire time, and that they were all pouring out right now.

Vela moved forward, her legs stiff, as if they were telling her not to go forward. But she forced them forward, making herself walk over to where Miri sat in the snow. She knelt down slowly, cautiously putting a hand on Miri's back in a way of soothing her.

"Where is your child, Miri?" Vela asked gently "What happened to them?"

The druidess looked up, and for once she didn't glare at Vela. Instead her face was of hopelessness and despair, and fresh tears ran down her face.

"Gone," she said "Gone."

"What do you mean, gone?" asked Vela, knowing that Miri had to get this out of her before it consumed her.

Miri sobbed slightly. "On the day your kind came to my town, I was forced to fight. I had to do something, I had to help. I couldn't stand there and watch them take my people! But I fought too much, and I lost my child in that fight. That child is gone."

The night elf began to sob again, fresh hot tears pouring down her face that wrenched Vela's heart. Vela patted the night elf on the back, putting her sympathy out to her.

"It is the fate of your life, young druid. What happened to you on that day was always meant to happen, and there is no changing that. That child may be lost to the void, but you are not. And life continues on, and eventually all you can do is accept that." said Vela softly "The world is not always nice, I know that for a fact, but I promise you that it gets easier."

Miri looked up, the hopelessness still in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but then her eyes became wide with shock and Vela found herself being shoved into the ground with Miri on top of her, the night elf holding the hem of Vela's robe tightly in her hands.

At first Vela feared that Miri had not changed, and that she was going to try and kill Vela just as Vela had originally feared. But then Vela heard the slight swish of air beside her ear and she looked up to see an axe fly right past her head and land in the snow where her body would have been had Miri not shoved her out of the way.

Vela quickly got up, her muscles tensed for battle, and watched as Miri did much the same, her hands glowing green for a moment as she transformed into her cat form, growling as she made the final transformation.

Vela quickly identified their attackers as three dwarves, there eyes a sapphire blue and there skin a stone like black, and there bodies covered in a thick metal armor. They roared an angry war cry and charged at them, there legs moving surprisingly fast in the deep snow.

Miri leapt for the axe-less dwarf, letting out an earsplitting roar as she did so, and Vela quickly began to call upon her magic, thinking as fast as she could as the two remaining dwarves ran towards her, their axes raised and ready to strike.

Vela was going to do a simple spell. She was going to channel her magic into fire and shoot it at them, hopefully igniting the dwarves and killing them. She guided the magic quickly out of her hands a stream of fire erupted from her hands, aimed towards both of the approaching dwarves. It killed one, incinerating it, but the other fire ball deflected off of the second dwarve's armor and Vela had to lurch to the side to avoid it.

Just as the axe was about to come down upon her, Vela heard a loud roar that echoed through the mountains and watched as the dwarf in front of her fell, Miri's jaws ripping into his throat. The dwarf let out a shaky whimper before he died, his body going limp in Miri's jaws.

Miri let go, blood dripping from her jaws as she did so. She looked up at Vela, her face expressionless as she transformed back into her night elf form, the area around her mouth covered in dried blood.

Vela stared into the depths of the night elves white pupils, a cold understanding running through her as she looked at the night elf. She knew that what she had just heard and learned of Miri that day was never to be repeated, and that she would take it to her grave unless told other wise.

But the silence was interrupted by a large thundering crash echoing through the mountains, causing both Miri and Vela to look up. They saw tons of snow rolling down the mountainside, coming to a sheer stop as it crashed into the ground.

"RUN!" yelled Vela as they jumped out of the way, landing side by side on the ground as they watched the snow pile up mere feet in front of them.

It continue doing this until the stack of snow got so high that Vela could no longer see the top of it, then it stopped,leaving both the dragon and the night elf staring up at the sky in wonder.

"A landslide," said Vela blankly.

"Yup," said Miri "It's blocking the path. There's no way we can get through."

"Kyragosa's not going to like that," remarked Vela, earning a giggle from Miri.

"Well then, we'd best go back and get the confrontation over with." said Miri, standing up.

"Yup, guess we should." said Vela, standing up as well and brushing some of the snow from her robe.

And so the night elf and the black dragon began their walk back to the cave, were a soon to be angry Kyragosa awaited them. Vela smiled as she walked, knowing that she had just made a friend, of a sorts. At least Miri wouldn't be venomous towards her all the time. And maybe, just maybe, they could be friends. Of a sort.

And maybe that's how would always be, Vela would always be making friends of a sort, that would never really be her true friends, as they would never let go of the fact that she was a member of one of the most hated races in existence. Because, maybe that was how it was supposed to be. So that no one would ever forget all of the wrong her people had done to the world.

So maybe she was meant to be hated for that. So that the black dragonflight would never be forgotten, Deathwing's treachery always being remembered, and Vela always being hated. And maybe, just maybe, Vela could accept that this was her purpose in life. Because her flight had done a lot of wrong to the mortals, and they had every right to be mad.

And Vela accepted that just then. That she would be hated for as long as her flight was remembered, and that would be forever. After all, she had always been hated. All that had changed now was that she was all alone in this never ending cycle of hatred.

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	16. Where to Now?

_**Dear Readers: A huge thanks to all of you readers and reviewers! I hope you like the chapter! And a very, very special thanks to Destrark for betaing this.**_

_**Chapter 16...**_

"Are we there yet?" asked a tired and slightly grouchy Vela.

Miri lazily glanced back, a half scowl written across her face, and said "Obviously not," with what seemed to be as much venom as she could muster into her words to Vela. Vela only smiled, amused at the druid's childish temper.

Somewhere along their journey back, a snow storm had settled over the pair, and the snow was now so thick that they could barely see their hands in front of their faces. And of course they had managed to get themselves lost on top of all of that, and now they were walking around the snow covered canyon, with what seemed to be a horrible blizzard raging overhead with little to no visibility.

Vela had no idea how they were going to actually find the cave with such bad weather going on, for all they knew they could have already passed it. They could have been going around in circles for all they knew, and they wouldn't realize until the snowfall slowed.

Deciding to amuse herself, Vela asked "Does anything look familiar to you?"

Miri slowed slightly and looked back at her, this time wearing a full on scowl. "Oh, I don't know, that pile of snow over there looks sort of familiar," she said, again with an extra dose of venom and sarcasm reserved only for Vela.

Vela smiled. "Really?" she asked, having fun despite the cold.

"OF COURSE NOTHING LOOKS FAMILIAR!" Miri practically yelled. "Everything here is snow, snow, mountain, and more snow! Nothing could possibly look familiar!"

Vela had the urge to barrel over and laugh. "Ooh, grr," Vela said "And I thought I was grouchy in cold weather,"

Miri grunted. "Typical black dragon." she said "Sarcastic, condescending, and all out rude."

"Typical black dragon? Isn't that a little racist?" Vela asked.

"Nope, it's the truth." said Miri.

"Ouch, that was a stinger," said Vela "It hurts so much to know that you hate my guts. I mean, it's not like the rest of the living world hates me too. Now that would be awful! I don't know how I'll live knowing that one night elf druid, a small little speck of the world's population, completely hates me."

Miri huffed and crossed her arms, wearing her signature 'I don't care' face that made Vela want to burst out laughing. She had seen more maturity from a newborn whelp. She refrained from completely laughing and settled for a little snort before going back to looking for the cave and Kyragosa.

The snowstorm was still going strong, with no sign of slowing down, and Vela found herself shivering and rubbing her arms in an attempt to make herself even the slightest bit warmer. The cold was her enemy, and one of her biggest weaknesses. She was cold blooded, so she naturally couldn't stand the cold. It was against her nature just as much as cutting down trees was against the nature of the night elves.

It made sense that the Dragonblight, the dragon's graveyard, was their graveyard. Because as soon as any dragon even stepped foot into it they probably froze to death on the spot. Why so many dragons decided to live there, Vela had no idea. It was like a death sentence to anything with scales.

Vela growled as a snow filled gust of wind hit her face. This was definitely not what she had been expecting to do. She had expected to go out hunting and come back to the cave carrying delicious prey in her arms that would later be cooked by the fire so that she could eat it. But instead, she was lost in the middle of a snow covered canyon, hunger and cold gnawing at her insides, and the only company being a slightly childish night elf that pretty much hated her guts.

She sighed, trying to focus on the good side. The storm seemed to be slowing down, or did she just feel like it was? Ever since that landslide had happened, she had felt the earth a lot more clearly. She could feel the ground beneath her vibrate as she walked on it, the burrowing of a worm far beneath her feet, and it was getting a lot worse. She could already start to feel the faint vibration of each snowflake hitting the ground, and it was annoying as hell to her. It was always distracting her from her thoughts, and she was beginning to hate every creature that lived or burrowed beneath the ground.

She was now fully aware of the large amount of worms that lived in the soils of Northrend. Believe it or not, there were a lot. Vela guessed that it was because there was no bird stupid enough to live there, so the worms had pretty much no predators.

Of course, they might have a predator soon if Vela couldn't figure out a way to stop sensing every vibration they made. It was beginning to be more than an annoyance now; it was turning into a frustration that if not treated, would drive her practically insane until it was fixed.

Vela sighed and rid her mind of her current thoughts, trying her best to focus on the situation at hand despite the constant vibrations she could feel. She instead focused on what she couldn't feel, which was the shivering of a certain night elf. She raised an eyebrow, curious as to how the druid hadn't started shivering as she had, and glanced over her shoulder to look at her.

"How on Azeroth are you not shivering your butt off?" she asked.

Miri looked up at her, her gaze still uncaring. "I'm just not." she said before looking away as if Vela had never said anything at all.

"Oh, because that just explains everything," said Vela. "But seriously, I've seen immensely powerful magicians go to Northrend and still shiver even with all of the magic they use to keep themselves warm. Doesn't it have something to do with being warm blooded? Like it's natural?

"How would you know if I should be shivering or not?" she asked "After all I'm the real mortal here. You're a dragon, completely different."

"Dragon or not, I know you should be shivering." Vela said "All the mortals I've seen in Northrend were always shivering, and that was inside a prison, far away from the outside world. So what's your secret?"

"I have none," said Miri "I just don't shiver."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's against science," said Vela "Warm blooded creatures shiver when it's cold, that's just how it is."

"And why would you know so much about warm blooded mortals, 'oh mighty aspect?'" Miri asked.

Vela sighed. "Never mind. It's not worth the argument. Just go back to trudging through Northrend and looking for the cave and Kyragosa." Vela said.

Miri huffed, which seemed to be her agreement, and began to look ahead, her arms folded and her face set in an uncaring scowl. Vela looked ahead as well, and was pleased to see that the snow seemed to have slowed down somewhat. She still had a feeling that it would pass soon, although she still had no idea why, and she began to walk a little faster despite her numbing feet.

She was quite aware of the possibility of getting frostbite, but she chose to ignore it. She trusted that her magic would make sure that didn't happen. As long as she channeled a little magic to the numb spots every once and a while, she was pretty sure she wouldn't lose her toes.

She rubbed her arms, trying to keep the cold away. Her new outfit was warmer than her plate armor, but it still wasn't as good as a nice furry coat. And it was a very thin fabric, linen she guessed from the feel of it, which wasn't the type of clothing you wore in Northrend. If she could, she would have worn leather, her favorite type of fabric to wear when she was among the mortals. But so far she had yet to master the ability to change her clothes like Kyragosa had.

She looked around, straining her eyes to see any sign of the cave, but saw none, as the snow was still falling too fast for the mountainside to be seen clearly enough. Vela sighed, wishing this could have gone better. She could feel the cold spreading through her, threatening to end her life if she let it spread for much longer.

Vela's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as she began to hear huge wing flaps somewhere above her, and she stopped in her tracks, looking up at the sky. She could see nothing however, and she could rely only on the sounds of the wings flapping. They got louder and louder as they got closer and closer to her, and she raised an eyebrow in confusion. She glanced momentarily to the side and saw that Miri had stopped too, looking up at the sky in confusion as well.

Then they stopped all together, and before Vela or Miri could say anything there was a large 'thud' heard as something very big hit the ground, and Vela fell back as the vibrations from the ground shook her to her core, making her wobbly and dizzy. She groaned as she hit the snow covered ground, her vision blurring as the vibrations went through her body. Everything was blurry, and she felt as if the entire world was shaking.

But eventually the vibrations slowed, and she began to regain her vision as well as her stability. She rubbed her head, which was pounding now, and carefully began to stand up, still wobbly from the vibrations that had shook the ground only moments ago.

But when she looked ahead, she thought that her vision was still blurry, because what she saw nearly shocked her into falling back into the snow. In front of her was a large, blue scaly lizard, with a night elf standing in front of it. Her mind still hazy, it took her a few moments to realize that it was none other than Kyragosa herself.

She was a humongous dragon, and if Vela didn't know better she might have even mistaken her for an aspect. She had the large size that a dragon could only gain from the magic of time and nature, and Vela knew she would never be able to marvel the size of the dragon in front of her without waiting to grow larger. Sure, she had gotten bigger when she had received her aspectual power, but magic could only go so far. Magic would never be able to marvel that of the magic of nature.

Kyragosa turned so that her face was right in front of Vela, and she even pushed her back a few feet with her snout.

Kyragosa breathed out, which seemed to be a snort, and said in draconic "Not so big now, are you whelp?"

Vela smiled. "I'd never be able to get as large as a big old ancient like you!"

Kyragosa snorted again. "Darling, I was an ancient when Galakrond's grandmother was a newborn whelp!"

"I could believe that," said Vela after giggling a little bit. "So why are you in your dragon form anyway?"

"Well, I decided that it wouldn't be a very good idea to have you flying us after what happened three days ago, so I decided to be the pack dragon for the day until you got better," she said, switching to Common so Miri could understand her. "Now, hop aboard. I can feel that the storm is going to pass soon, so let's get going before another one sets in."

Vela froze for a second, wondering how to break the news of the landslide to Kyragosa. "About that," she started "The reason we weren't able to catch any prey is because our hunt was sort of interrupted by a landslide."

There was a long pause for a few moments as Kyragosa looked down at Vela, the information seeming to be registering in her mind. "How large is it?" she finally asked after what seemed to be a life time.

"It's covering the entire pass," said Vela hesitantly, wondering how the blue dragon would react to the sudden delay.

There was another long pause before Kyragosa asked, "Can we fly over it?"

Vela shook her head. "It went so high up into the sky that the clouds covered it and I couldn't see it anymore."

It was another minute before Kyragosa spoke again. "The whole pass?" she asked, seeming to be slightly stunned by the news.

Vela nodded grimly. "It looked thick too, If we hadn't been attacked by those dwarves we might not have been able to-"

"Hold on now," Kyragosa asked "Attacked by dwarves? What dwarves? What did they look like?"

Vela's eyes widened slightly. She hadn't expected such a reaction from Kyragosa, and all of her attention that had once been on the landslide and the pass now seemed to be focused on the dwarves attacking them.

"They were three of them, and they all seemed to be warriors from what I could tell." said Miri, who was now standing next to Kyragosa's snout. "They had gray tinted skin and blue eyes, sort of like the high elves eyes, and most of them had silver-gray hair."

"Sounds like an iron dwarf to me," said Kyragosa grimly. "Yes, they would the type to attack you. From what I've heard, Loken, their 'god`, recently went insane from the old god's whispers. It was such a tragedy to hear that one of the Titan's entrusted had fallen so easily. It makes you wonder just how long the rest of us are safe from those horrendous creatures." She breathed out in what seemed to be a sigh "Anyways, they are under the control of the old gods now, so it is of no surprise to me that they would attack you. Let's just hope we don't see any more on our trip."

"Loken was recently turned mad?" asked Miri "That happened years ago!

"When you come to be my age, you start to count years like mortals count days." said Kyragosa. "Now, let us get going. I would not like to get stuck in another snow storm."

"Wait, how are we supposed to get through?" asked Vela "The entire pass is blocked, there's no way we can get through. And I don't feel like sitting here and waiting for it to melt."

"Silly whelp," said Kyragosa "There is another way to Grizzly hills, a secondary route going around the mountains where there are less storms."

"Then why didn't we go along that route instead if there are less storms?" asked Vela.

"Because," said Kyragosa "There are millions of little thieves and bandits, not to mention the predators of Northrend, and I like to avoid getting mugged, even if I can blow almost anything to bits."

"Ah, I see now," said Vela "So, shall we get going?"

Kyragosa spread out her wings to full length, making the snow around her feet lift slightly. "Get on whenever you're ready," she said.

Vela, followed closely by Miri, walked over to the blue dragon's leg and began to climb up, making their way up to her neck and situating themselves at the base of her neck, making themselves as comfortable as they could on the scaly back of a dragon. Vela gave Kyragosa the signal and the blue dragon kneeled down in the snow, her legs arched in preparation to jump.

Kyragosa launched herself into the sky, Vela and Miri holding on tightly to her neck as Kyragosa unfolded her wings and began to soar though the sky, the clouds surrounding them as they went higher and higher. Below her, Vela could just barely make out the path, which they were now leaving behind as they flew in the opposite direction towards Howling Fjord.

Vela smiled as she watched the snowy land slowly disappear as they flew by; glad to be out of the chill. Northrend was cold, but it was places like that that were unbearable. Icecrown was a frozen hell to Vela, and she was glad that she had only had to go there once, a very long time ago.

She clung tightly to Kyragosa's neck as snow began to hit her face, attempting to stay as warm as possible while they were still in the snowy region. She was still pretty cold, even with the lessened amount of snow, and they would have to leave soon. She tried to look ahead, hoping to see the lush green pines of the forest, but was unable to from her perch on Kyragosa's back.

She sighed and pressed herself against Kyragosa's neck as her hair went flying in all directions, probably getting as tangled as a thorn patch from the wind. She could hear Miri shifting around behind her as she closed her eyes in an attempt to get some sleep and she had the urge to turn around and tell her to get comfortable and stop moving. Of course, she refrained, not wanting to start another argument.

She closed her eyes, letting a much needed sleep overcome her.

* * *

Vela awoke to a large whack at the base of her head.

She got up quickly and whirled around, to see none other than Kyragosa standing over her in her high elf form with her staff in one hand raised slightly over Vela's bare neck. Kyragosa had obviously not seen Vela awaken, because she was raising the staff up once again and was just about to swing it down before Vela intervened.

"Stop! Stop!" she yelled "I'm awake! Put the stick down! I'm awake!"

Kyragosa stopped her hand, the staff mere inches away from Vela's face, and pulled back.

"It's about time you're awake too!" said Kyragosa "You've been sleeping for hours! I have no idea how you could have slept through that snowstorm,"

Vela sat up in what she now saw was snow, and rested her head on her knees. She felt sore all over, which she had expected from sleeping on a dragon's back for hours and hours and then being whacked in the head with a stick.

She stretched out her arms, still feeling very tired. "A snowstorm?" she asked as she did so "I thought we were leaving the mountains?"

"We were, and we weren't," said Kyragosa "We were going around them, where there are usually less snowstorms, but there are still some. Apparently we were unlucky, because one hit us on the way in. That's why we are here, on the ground, instead of up in the sky flying."

Vela looked up and saw that it was indeed snowing, and she also realized that the sun had set and that it would be getting dark very quickly. She grunted as a snowflake hit her in the eye, blinking a few times before it melted and no longer felt odd in her eye.

"So what are we going to do now?" she asked, looking up at Kyragosa.

"Camp for the night," the blue dragon said. "There's no point in walking, we'll just tire ourselves out, and I'm already very tired from the flight here,"

Vela hauled herself up, now standing face to face with Kyragosa. "But I thought you said there were bandits here?"

Kyragosa shrugged. "Miri is a night elf, nocturnal and what not, she will guard the camp while we sleep."

Kyragosa turned and began walking in the direction of the mountain. Vela followed, finding it hard to keep up when she was walking in the foot deep snow.

"Where is Miri anyway?" asked Vela as she looked around for the night elf.

"She's up ahead fixing the camp," said Kyragosa "It is so strange to see someone with so much energy at this hour,"

Vela finally caught up to the blue dragon and was now walking along side her, doing her best to keep up the pace. "Night elves are nocturnal?" she asked "Huh, I never knew that. I never met one, so I never really knew much about them. I guess that would explain why Miri is so grouchy all the time,"

"Eh," said Kyragosa "I personally believe that it is a character trait of hers."

Vela nodded. "Yeah, I could see that too."

As they walked along Vela noticed what seemed to be the outline of a tent in the distance, and the sound of feet on the snow. As she and Kyragosa got closer she realized that it was not one tent, but rather two, sitting next to each other. She also realized the scrambling of feet on the snow was actually paws hitting the snow, and she wondered what was going on.

Kyragosa slowed as they made their way towards the tents, with what looked to be a smile on her face, as she looked at the scene in front of her. There were two, identical large tents sitting next to each other with a fire pit sitting a few feet from both of them. And sitting in front of it was a dark purple feline, head raised as if to tell everyone of how proud it was of what it had done.

"Well done, Miri!" said Kyragosa as she walked over to the cat. "I didn't think you would have been able to finish the camp so quickly!"

Kyragosa patted the cat on the head as she walked by, getting a purr from the cat. Vela walked over as well, keeping her distance from Miri as she growled at Vela, glaring at her.

"Good to see you to!" Vela said as she quickly walked by.

Vela looked up to see that Kyragosa was standing next to the fire pit, her hands glowing a bright blue as she prepared to cast a spell. Her body was tense, and her eyes were shut tight in concentration. Vela watched as a small string of the blue energy left Kyragosa's hands and travelled over to the wood, which caught fire as soon as the tentacle of magic touched it.

In an instant Kyragosa's hands were their normal light olive brown, and there was no trace of the blue energy that had been there only a second ago. Kyragosa relaxed her muscles, opening up her eyes and watching the orange fire in front of her with what seemed to be pride in her eyes.

Vela smiled and quickly made her way over to the fire, sighing in relief as she sat down next to it and felt the warmth enter her body. She put her hands out in front of the fire, trying to warm them up as best she could. She was a little worried that they might get frostbite if she didn't warm them up soon.

She heard a cat's growl and she looked back to see Miri coming over to them. As the cat prowled over, Vela heard the cracking of bones and watched as Miri changed back into her night elf form, coming to sit down next to her. Vela noticed that Miri seemed to be more energized, as her movements were quicker and her reflexes better than usual.

"So what now?" asked Miri in a musical voice that made Vela want to gag.

Kyragosa looked up and said "Now, we eat and sleep and leave in the morning."

"Oh good," said Vela. "I'm starving!"

"I bet you would be after sleeping for three days," said Miri.

"I wasn't sleeping," said Vela. "I was in a mental state that kept myself from dying as my body healed itself."

"Looked like sleeping to me." said Miri.

Vela rolled her eyes. She was too hungry to care about what Miri said.

"So anyways," said Kyragosa. "There is some jerky, some water, and a pot. Who wants to cook?"

"I'll do it!" said Miri with a little too much enthusiasm as she abruptly stood and ran over to one of the tents.

"Okay then," said Kyragosa. "I guess that's settled. Now, I am going to sit here and get warm and no one is going to bother me! Otherwise, there's not going to be a blue dragon to fly you to Grizzly hills tomorrow."

Vela nodded, and watched as Kyragosa crossed her legs and closed her eyes, placing palms on either of her knees. She began to breathe very slowly, and Vela began to wonder if she had fallen asleep.

She glanced over her shoulder as she heard the smashing of metal, and watched as Miri emerged from one of the tents with a bag in one hand and a pot in the other. She moved very quickly, making her way over to the roaring fire and sitting down next to it. She set the pot down and picked up the bag, rummaging through it for a few moments before pulling a water skin and a handful of jerky out.

Her next few movements were so fast that Vela wasn't sure if they had happened until she looked and saw a pot of jerky soup hanging over the fire from a stick suspended over the orange flames. Vela blinked, wondering why Miri suddenly became so fast during nightfall.

"Ah, finally." said Miri. "I've been waiting all day to get a good breakfast."

Vela raised an eyebrow. "Breakfast?" she asked. "It's the beginning of the night,"

"Yeah, I guess you day-dwellers would call it dinner," said Miri. "But this is breakfast to me. My day begins at nightfall and ends at sunrise."

"Weird," said Vela.

"Weird?" asked Miri. "Says the fire breathing lizard who received magical powers and became an aspect over night."

"But still," started Vela. "Magic, even in large amounts, is normal among dragons. Sleeping during the day and living at night, however, is abnormal for mortals. Even elves."

Miri rolled her eyes and huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Vela leaned closer to the fire and watched as the water began to boil, licking her lips hungrily as the fresh scent of cooking meat reached her nostrils. This would be her first meal in days, and it was important if she were to have her magic wells restored properly.

Out of the corner of her eye she was able to see Miri rummage through her bag again and pull out a large wooden spoon, which she dipped in the boiling water and began to stir. Vela moved back a little, not wanting to get boiling water sprayed all over her. Miri stopped stirring, leaving the wooden spoon lying in the water, and pulled out what seemed to be salt and pepper shakers, which she began to shake over the pot before putting them back into the bag. She stirred a few more times before taking out the spoon and placing it on the snow next to her.

She rummaged through her bags once again, and this time she brought out three bowls and three pairs of spoons. She placed them on the ground next to her and picked up the wooden spoon again, carefully using it to put the hot soup into each bowl before taking the pot off of the branch and placing it in the snow to cool off.

She banged the spoon against the metal pot a few times before saying "Dinner's ready!"

Kyragosa opened one blue eye and looked around before opening the other and beginning to uncurl herself from her current position. She licked her lips as she saw the steaming hot bowls of soup, and she reached out and quickly grabbed her bowl and spoon from Miri.

"It's about time we had something hot to eat," said the blue dragon before she dug into her meal.

Vela reached out and grabbed her bowl as well, taking one big spoonful of soup and shoving it into her mouth, smiling as the delicious taste of cooked meat met her tongue. She swallowed and began to take more big spoonfuls of soup, finishing her bowl quickly and leaving her a little warmer inside.

She had another two bowls of the soup before calling it quits, and retiring to the tent that she learned was hers.

"Good night!" she heard Kyragosa yell as she entered her tent.

Any mortal would not have been able to see anything inside the tent, but with Vela's enhanced vision she was just barely able to see inside. Her tent was rather nice for something made by someone who hated her guts.

It was a small tent, but cozy and inviting for a tired dragon. There was a sleeping roll lying on the ground in the left corner, ready for her to crawl in and fall asleep. There was also a bag in the right corner, along with a box that had an unlit candle lying on it.

She yawned and stretched her arms before walking over to her sleeping roll and carefully climbing in, smiling as the warm wool fabric hit her cold skin. She quickly closed her eyes, relaxing her body, and let sleep engulf her.

* * *

Vela's eyes snapped open at the sound of a loud roar outside her tent. She shot up in an instant, her muscles tense and ready for battle. She could feel vibrations going through the ground as feet slammed down on the snow outside of her tent, and the sound of men yelling out harsh battle cries.

She wasted no time getting up and ripping open the tent flap, letting the bright moonlight engulf her dark form. After a few moments her eyes adjusted to the light, and she took in the scene in front of her.

Miri, in her cat form, was standing on the snow in front of a group of small men, her muscles tensed and her legs ready to pounce. Vela heard the soft shifting of fabric to her right and she looked over to see a drowsy Kyragosa emerging from her tent as well, rubbing her eyes as she looked around for the source of the noise.

Vela strained her eyes and realized that the small men were not men at all, but rather iron dwarves like the ones she and Miri had encountered in the pass earlier that day.

In an instant Vela was running over to aid Miri in the fight she was sure was about to happen and she could hear Kyragosa's feet crashing into the snow not far behind her.

Just as Vela reached the scene, three of the dwarves began to attack, and Miri charged into battle, letting out a loud roar as she jumped for the nearest one. Vela began to channel her magic through her hands, a dark orb of arcane magic emerging from her hands. She quickly guided it out and launched it at a dwarf that was running towards her.

It hit the dwarf right in the torso and began to engulf him in black flames, he screamed for a few moments before his body collapsed, and the black fire that still surrounded his body soon turned him into a pile of ashes.

Vela looked around the area for her next opponent and saw that all of the dwarves had ceased attacking, and that they were all staring wide eyed at the pile of ashes that had once been their comrade. Then they looked at Vela, and she noticed that there was one dwarf in particular that was giving her the evil eye.

It was a woman, her robes suggesting that she was a mage. She was taller than the other dwarves, and she carried a large wooden staff. Her hair was a silvery white, and tied back in a long braid.

She yelled something to the other dwarves in a language that Vela could not understand, but seemed familiar to her in a rather bad way.

At the sound of her voice the other dwarves stopped, leaving Vela and the others raising their eyebrows in confusion as they formed a circle around the dwarf woman and began to speak in the same language the dwarf woman had spoken earlier.

After a few minutes, they stopped talking, and a male dwarf stepped out from the circle and approached Vela and the others, who were now standing next to each other.

Despite the events that had occurred mere moments ago, he had a humble smile on his face, as if there had been no fighting at all.

He stopped a few feet away from them and began to speak in an accent rich common. "My apologies, travelers," he said "My comrades and I had no idea that you were alliance folk. We mistook you for the horde, and we attacked you by accident."

Miri growled, and then changed back into her night elf form. "Attacked us by accident?" she asked. "What made you think we were horde? Couldn't you see the night elf tattoos on my face?"

The dwarf stared at her for a few seconds, probably trying to rein in his temper, before he spoke again. "It is dark, elf," he said. "We were unable to see that you were alliance until the human," he motioned towards Vela with one of his dark stone hands "Used her fire magic,"

Miri huffed, obviously unsatisfied with the dwarfs excuse, and crossed her arms.

"Now," continued the dwarf. "It is by custom that we invite you to stay with us in our city, only a mile away to the north."

He looked at them with an almost too humble smile, and both Vela and Miri looked to Kyragosa.

The blue dragon merely shrugged and spoke "Why not?"


	17. Dun Argol

**_Dear readers: Big thanks to all of you who are reading and/or reviewing! And a very big thanks to Destrark for betaing this!_**

**_Now, here's chapter 17..._**

_"Why not?!"_ Miri repeated "Are you insane?! You think we should just agree and waltz right into some unknown city with some random dwarves we don't even know with pretty much no idea what we're doing?!"

"Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying," said Kyragosa.

Miri sighed and smacked her forehead with her hand. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?"

"Well, it's either we go into the nice and warm city with beds and blankets," said Kyragosa "Or we can stay out here and freeze to death."

"That's not the point!" said Miri. "We can't just go to some random dwarven city without any knowledge of it besides the fact that it's an alliance city!"

"But that is all the knowledge we need," said Kyragosa. "Because we _are_ members of the alliance, and we accept hospitality from _other_ members of the alliance, don't we, Miri?"

Miri stared at Kyragosa blankly for a few moments, what the blue dragon was trying to say slowly registering in her mind. "Oh, right," Miri finally said. "Yes, we are members of the alliance. So this is a great idea!"

Kyragosa smiled. "Yes, it is! So we are going to accept their invitation and go with them to their city and take shelter. Right? Because we're members of the alliance as well?"

Both Vela and Miri slowly nodded their heads, an understanding of sorts running through their gazes.

Kyragosa smiled and turned to the iron dwarf, who had been watching and waiting for their response patiently on the sidelines. "We will gladly accept your invitation to stay in your city," said Kyragosa.

The dwarf smiled, seeming a little too happy about their response. "Wonderful!" he said "I will go and tell the others while you get ready."

He turned around and began to run back to the others, his short and stubby legs moving surprisingly fast in the deep snow. Vela watched him for a few seconds before she snapped her attention back to Kyragosa, who was watching her patiently.

"Okay," she said, catching their attention. "We are going to go with them and stay with them for one night. We are members of the alliance. Miri, you already know our cover. I will tell you yours later Vela. Remember, my name is Keira. Now, get your things and smile at the friendly dwarves."

With that Kyragosa, or rather Keira, turned and headed towards the camp, leaving Vela and Miri walking after her. Vela was in fact slightly nervous about the situation. She didn't know much about the alliance, one of the only mortals she had ever met had been a blood elf, a member of the horde, who did not tell her much of the alliance and what he had said wasn't very good.

She just hoped that Keira was making the right decision about this, and that she wouldn't be discovered and killed by the dwarves.

She had they strangest feeling when around them. She wasn't sure how to describe it, but it was sort of like drinking a little took much beer, and you get a little fuzzy feeling in the back of your mind, and you're a little tipsy. She felt as if she should know what they are, but she just couldn't place them. It was like that part of her memory was fuzzy and she couldn't remember it very well.

She followed the vibrations of Keira's footsteps to guide as she pondered this, her head hung low in thought. She knew these dwarves from somewhere, she just wasn't exactly sure where she knew them from.

And their language, whatever it was called, made her feel weird. It sounded very familiar, and she knew that she had heard it before. But once again, she couldn't quite place where she had heard it from. She felt like she should know what it was and even understand it maybe, but she just couldn't remember. The entire part of her memory with that information seemed to have a thick cloud of mist surrounding it, and she just couldn't cut through no matter how hard she tried.

She sighed and shrugged it off as she entered the camp, taking her focus off of the vibrations of Keira's feet and back to getting her stuff. Keira went into her own tent and Miri went who knows where while Vela entered her own tent, looking around in it.

It was at that moment she realized she owned nothing besides the clothes on her back, which were of course made by magic, so she didn't really even own them either. She sighed and went into the corner of the tent, where her sleeping bag lay on the ground, the blankets tossed around from her slumber. She knelt down and began to roll it up, doing her best to keep the pile of blankets nice and neat but failing in the end, ending up carrying a lump of blankets in her hands.

She looked around the tent, searching for anything else she could carry, but decided that she couldn't take anything else with all of the blankets in her hands. She got up and made her way over to the tent flap, which she walked through quickly and began to look around.

A passing Keira loaded Vela's arms full of random stuff, such as pillows, more blankets, various bags, and the occasional box. The extra weight caught her off guard, and she let out an 'Oof,' before falling to her knees in the snow. Out of the corner of her eye she was able to see Kyragosa turn around and look at her disappointingly, shaking her head back and forth.

"Little whelp," she said "Being in that prison for so long really did cut down on your muscle, didn't it?"

Before Vela could say anything back, Kyragosa turned and began to organize more luggage. Vela rolled her eyes and began to heave herself up, her frontal vision slightly blocked from all of the stuff she was carrying.

But as she looked around she noticed that the sky had a grayish tint to it, and guessed that dawn was approaching. It was still fairly dark out, but she was starting to able to see better.

She stood there for a few seconds, wondering what she should do, when Kyragosa passed her yet again. The blue dragon glanced at her and stopped, shaking her head disappointingly once again.

"Are you just going to stand there until you freeze to death?" she asked "Get a move on! We have places to be! Wait with Miri over there."

Vela rolled her eyes again as the blue dragon waved her hand absentmindedly in the direction of Miri. She felt like a whelp being scolded by her brood mother. And she might as well be, given that Kyragosa was much, much older than her. So in retrospect, Vela was a whelp compared to Kyragosa.

Vela walked forward, doing her best to balance the luggage that was in her arms, going in the direction of the now in cat-shaped druid. Miri was standing on all fours, what seemed to be a kitty scowl written across her face, with luggage strapped to her back. Vela could tell the night elf was irritated, and she decided to try not to make any more sarcastic remarks this time. She was still pretty tired after being jerked awake by attacking dwarves, and wasn't in the mood to deal with an angry Miri in cat form.

Vela stopped a few feet away from Miri, the night elf growling through the side of her mouth as Vela stopped.

"Nice to see you too." spoke Vela, unfortunately unable to suppress her reflexive sarcasm.

Miri grunted in response, and began to look ahead, probably waiting for Kyragosa Vela guessed. Vela looked ahead as well, examining the dwarves from afar. Again she got the creepy feeling, and she had the sensation that something was crawling up her spine. The back of her mind felt fuzzy, and she felt like she was standing on unstable rocks. It was like drinking a little too much Brightsong wine and beginning to have that tipsy feeling when you got up and tried to walk around.

Her senses started to numb and she quickly looked away, the feeling she felt around them loosing its effects. There was something off about the dwarves, something not right. Vela wasn't exactly sure what it was, but they were just, off. She shuddered as she thought of it, and she began to think of something else to distract her from the dwarves.

She knew Kyragosa was approaching before she even saw her with her new tremor sense ability. She turned around and saw that Kyragosa had a large bag strapped to her back, which looked like it was crammed with way too much stuff. She was also carrying her staff in one hand, using it to walk, and Vela swore she could see some of her blood on the end of it.

"Okay then," she said as she stopped to stand in between Miri and Vela. "Let's get a move on. I want to get out of this cold weather as soon as possible."

Vela nodded and Miri grunted in reply, and they began to walk towards the dwarves, who were standing a little ways off in the distance patiently waiting for them. Again Vela got the fuzzy wrong feeling in the back of her mind and she looked down at her feet, or at least what she could see of them with all the stuff she was carrying.

Thankfully, she didn't need to see anyway, she could just feel the vibrations of Kyragosa's feet hitting the ground and let the vibrations guide her to the dwarves. She tried not to pay attention to Miri's vibrations; it made her dizzy to feel for different vibrations at once at such an odd rhythm and pace.

She could feel the faint disturbance of the dwarves shifting around ahead of her, and she began to use that as her guide. She was starting to get the hang of her new power, and she was beginning to use it to her advantage rather than think of it as an annoyance. Of course, large vibrations still bothered her a lot.

She slowly began to stop as she felt the vibrations of Kyragosa's feet slow, and she peeked her head over the top of her luggage to see what was going on. She tried her best not to look at the dwarves, but sometimes she couldn't help it, and every single time she looked at them she began to feel the faint fuzziness in the back of her mind and she would have to look away.

"We are ready now." said Kyragosa.

The dwarf who had spoken with them before stepped forward, an almost mischievous smile on his face that made Vela extremely suspicious. "Wonderful!" he said "We might just get there in time for breakfast if we hurry, the sun be rising fast."

The dwarf woman from before, who seemed to be in charge of the dwarves, spoke in the same mysterious language that made Vela's spine tingle. She seemed to be scowling, and her voice was deep, emphasizing whatever point she was trying to make. Once she was done talking the dwarves nodded, and the dwarf motioned for them to follow as they began to walk.

Vela looked over at Kyragosa and the blue dragon nodded as they started to follow the dwarves. They were headed straight north, into what looked to be another snow storm. Vela sighed, again wishing they were anywhere on Azeroth except its northern continent.

Her eyes grew wide as a humongous stone fortress protruding from the mountain made itself visible. She knew the dwarves had said they lived in a city, but she hadn't thought that something so big could be built in such a cold and harsh landscape, let alone built into the mountain. She knew that dwarves were known for having good hands when it came to working with stone, but she hadn't known that it meant carving a city out of a mountain.

They had been walking for about a good fifteen minutes, entering the edge of a rather fierce snowstorm and at first Vela had thought that they would get lost in the snow like Miri and herself had the other day. But the dwarves seemed to know the mountain like the back of their hand, and had no trouble finding the city.

The dwarf man from before, who was apparently the translator of the group, glanced back briefly to say, "This be our mountain home: Dun Argol."

Although the name seemed to be familiar to Vela, again she couldn't remember where she'd learnt it. It was as if everything about the dwarves was familiar, but she could never remember where from. It was as if any memory or information she had of the dwarves was fuzzy and forgotten, and she couldn't remember anything about them.

They reached the bottom of the mountain, where a steep cobblestone path went up the mountain and into what looked to be the main part of the city. Vela had to strain her eyes to see the very top building along the mountain, which was much bigger than the others and looked very important.

Vela stepped onto the cobblestone path and immediately regretted it. Hundreds upon hundreds of vibrations coursed through her body, making her fall backwards. Her head throbbed from all of the activity she could feel going through the city, and she slammed both of her hands to the sides of her head and kept them there, her nails digging partially into her flesh as the vibrations coursed through her body.

It was extremely painful, and it seemed to numb her sense of feeling, getting the vibrations of other people mixed up with her own movements, and she couldn't tell if she was moving or not.

She found herself thrashing about on the ground, everyone's eyes on her as she seemed to have a spasm. Her eyes were jammed shut, and her nails dug deeper into the flesh of her head. She was surprised at just how much activity there was in the city; it didn't seem big enough for all of the vibrations.

As she thrashed about, vibrations confusing her own senses with what others were doing, she felt a deep pressure on her mind. At first she was confused, the pain distracting her too much for her too properly think, but before she knew it the vibrations began to numb, and she realized that someone was numbing her sense of them. As the pain dulled, along with her vibration sensors, she realized that it was Kyragosa who was fixing it.

She could feel worry coming from the blue dragon from the mental connection, but before she knew it Kyragosa had broken the tie, and Vela could no longer feel the vibrations at all.

She relaxed her hands, which had been jammed into her forehead, and slowly opened her eyes. Daylight filled her eyes, and she saw that everyone was looking at her with confused expressions on her face.

She slowly got to her knees, still slightly weak from being bombarded with the sensation of what felt like constant tiny earthquakes and began to stand, finding Kyragosa close by her side. She looked at the blue dragon and was surprised to see worry written across her face instead of her usually calm expression. Vela shook her head, telling her that everything was all right, and Kyragosa slowly nodded, as if she didn't really believe that Vela was fine. And Vela wasn't, but that was a conversation for another time.

Vela looked at the dwarves and saw that instead of being shocked and suspicious, they looked curious as to what had just happened. Vela began to get the fuzzy feeling in the back of her mind again and she quickly looked away, her suspicion rising.

"Let us continue." Kyragosa said, lacking the happier tone she usually had.

Vela glanced over and saw that the translator was nodding, and then he said something in the mysterious language to the other dwarves and they began to walk up the path again. Vela found that she could no longer feel the vibrations in the ground, and she began to wonder what spell Kyragosa had used or what exactly she had changed in her mind. Whatever it was would come in handy whenever incidents like the one she had been in mere seconds ago occurred.

As they walked up the mountain, Vela began to feel a slight pressure on her mind, and she realized that it was Kyragosa's conscience. She allowed Kyragosa in as soon as she discovered her conscious.

_ 'What happened back there?'_ asked Kyragosa, a hint of worry in her mental voice.

_'It's complicated,'_ said Vela. _'I'll talk to you later, in private.'_

Kyragosa gave her a worried glance but Vela could feel her conscious leaving hers, so she guessed that the blue dragon got what she was saying. They continued up the mountain side with no further delays until they reached what seemed to be the beginning of the city, with stone houses beginning to appear around them.

As they began to see houses Vela noticed a few dwarves here and there, who all gave them odd looks as they went by. They were like the dwarves they were with, grey-black skin and usually silvery white hair. They all seemed very confused when they saw Vela and the others, and some even gave them hostile glares. Vela narrowed her eyes in suspicion the more she saw this behavior. This was an alliance city- so why was everyone acting so hostile and confused by their presence?

They walked through a small section of the city. It was just a small flat notch of land on the side of the mountain, little stone houses dotted throughout it. There were more dwarves here, but not many. It looked like a residential area to Vela, with a lot of children and younger dwarves running about.

They passed through this are quickly and began walking up another cobblestone path, which led to the second area of flat land that protruded from the side of the mountain. The walk up it was quick, and when Vela saw what was there she was very, very glad she couldn't feel vibrations then. This seemed to be the city part of the place, with little and big stone buildings all around, with many dwarves walking among the streets. There were also a few heavily armored dwarves riding on top of gryphons, guards from the looks of it. But the gryphons where different from any griffins Vela had ever seen, instead of being the usual white head with brown body, their feathers were all a dull grey and their eyes were a bluish light like the eyes of the high elves. They seemed to be made of stone like the dwarves riding them, their movements tight and slow, restrained almost.

The streets were crowded with dwarves upon dwarves upon dwarves. There was barely any room at all to walk, and the occasional nasty glares sent their way didn't help. And it was extremely loud. Vela guessed that they were near a market or going past one because as they continued to walk the loud chatter of people grew even louder, and she soon realized that it was actually lots of people yelling.

Every once in a while Vela and Kyragosa would cover their ears with their hands when the noise got too loud, there advanced senses making sound a lot louder than it actually was.

But, much to Vela and Kyragosa's relief, they made it out of that portion of the city fairly quickly, going up the mountain yet again. Vela just hoped that the next part wouldn't be as busy as the last.

Luckily though, they emerged into the third and last part of the city and saw that there was only one large building there, with hardly any dwarves around to make any noise. Vela sighed in relief as she saw the building, assuming it was the building they would staying in. And she was right, the translator dwarf glanced back at them when they came to the building, a slight smile on his face.

"This would be the main buildin', where you'll be stayin' while yer here." he said before glancing forward again.

They walked up to the entrance of the building, which was so tall that Vela had to crane her neck to see the top of it. It was a large rectangular building, made of stone of course, with four large pillars that held up an overhang over the entrance, sheltering it from snow, rain, and pretty much anything mother nature decided to throw at the dwarves

As Vela craned her neck upward she was just barely able to see the top half of a statue of an iron dwarf built into the top of the building, but before she could see anymore they entered the building and she was distracted by how warm it was in the room.

She immediately dropped all of the stuff she was carrying and began rubbing her arms as the warmth went through her, a purr like sound coming from her mouth. She hadn't been this warm in ages, always having lived in Northrend and having nothing but the cold. It was like a furnace in the room, and she loved it. Mortals tended not to like having such warm buildings, but the dwarves seemed to be different.

Realizing what she was doing, she opened her eyes to see that everyone was staring at her like she was a lunatic. She realized that she had just stopped in the middle of the room, dropped all of her stuff onto the floor and started purring and rubbing her arms.

Kyragosa gave her the face that seemed to say, 'Silly little whelp' while the dwarves looked at her with what seemed to be curiosity. Miri was too busy sweating buckets to care.

Vela smiled innocently and said "I haven't been in a place as warm as this in a long time, it was so nice I just forgot about everything else."

She kneeled down onto the floor and began to pick everything up, rolling it into her arms as she watched the dwarves out of the corner of her eye. The female dwarf, who seemed to be the leader, was surrounded by all of the dwarves except for the translator dwarf. They were speaking in a hushed tone but Vela could still tell that it was the mysterious language again. It sent shudders up her spine, and she had to look away.

She quickly got everything she had dropped back into her arms and stood to see the translator dwarf beginning to talk to Kyragosa and Miri. She walked over to stand next to them, listening closely.

"You'll be staying in a separate part of this here buildin'," he said "It's actually a few floors beneath us, so follow me please."

The dwarf turned around and began to walk towards another doorway in the corner of the room and the others followed suit. Vela noticed that the other dwarves were not coming with them, and that they were going into a separate room. Her suspicions rose, but she focused on following the dwarf.

They went through a small doorway that she had to bend over to get through and arrived in a room that was even warmer than the one they had been in before. She smiled as the heat began to sink into her skin, and she suppressed the urge to drop all of her stuff again. She looked to the side and saw that there was a huge forge taking up most of the space in the room, and she guessed that was the reason why it was so hot.

But they passed through the room fairly quickly, heading to the other end where what looked to be an elevator sat built into the wall. Vela frowned as she saw it, not many mortals had developed that type of technology. Elevators were a rare thing to see in Azeroth, and she hadn't expected to see one this city.

They all stopped in front of the elevator, waiting for the dwarf to say something or do something.

He walked over to the machine, which looked like it was just a slab of rock that went up and down using a pulley system, and motioned for them to follow. They did so, cautiously stepping onto the slab of rock. It wobbled slightly, and Vela hoped this wasn't a death trap where they were the spring.

"Don't worry" said the dwarf. "This here be the finest elevator you'll ever see."

'_If this is good quality,'_ Vela thought_ 'then I don't even want to know what bad quality is._'

The dwarf went over to the side of the little slab of rock where a crank was built into the wall of the elevator and began to turn it and the platform began to wobble as they went down into the earth. Vela looked at Kyragosa and saw that she was just casually standing there as usual, not worried at all. Miri, still in her cat form, lay outstretched on the floor, probably tired from walking a mile in snow then up the side of a mountain with a load of luggage strapped to her back.

They steadily went down; passing wall after wall of stone and the occasional floor wear a few dwarves would look up and see who was on the elevator. They received a few glares from the dwarves on the floors they passed, but other than that they had a smooth ride down.

They stopped on the third floor, from what Vela had counted, and the dwarf led them out into a dimly lit hallway, but Vela could tell that the hallway was huge, big enough to hold two dragons in it. Why dwarves of all races would need such a large hallway she didn't know.

Pillars alongside the wall kept the ceiling up, and Vela couldn't help but feel that she was a in a dungeon. The place was lit with a few torches here and there and the walls were a smooth dark black, giving the room an ancient feel to it.

A shiver ran up Vela's spine as she walked down the hallway. She felt as though she were back in her prison where the red flight kept her captive. It all looked so similar that she wouldn't have been surprised if she saw Dalgris step out around the corner and claim her as his captive.

Chilling thoughts crept into her mind, and the days she was their prisoner seemed fresh in her mind, as if they had only happened yesterday. She could remember the dark cell she had occupied for so long, the frail little servants that would run past the door to her prison, too afraid to even look at her. She could remember the days she had been tortured by the cursed Red Flight, she could remember the feel of hot coals on her back, and the sound of the whip as crackled through the air, stopping only when it reached her flesh.

She opened her eyes, realizing that she had jammed them shut. She blinked, ridding her mind of the thoughts. She was no longer their prisoner, and she would never be again. She realized she had been clutching the sleeping roll she held very tightly, and she loosened her grip.

She looked up and saw that they had turned down a much smaller hallway; although it was no brighter than the last passageway. Doors lined either side of the hallway, and every once in a while they would pass other dwarves, usually a females who seemed to be the caretakers.

The dwarf stopped at one door and said "This be the night elf's room" he looked at Miri and the night elf grunted in reply. "You'll find it is fit for a druid."

He opened the door and Miri cautiously slipped in, looking back at the dwarf with a scowl as she did. The dwarf closed the door and continued walking down the hall, Vela and Kyragosa following close behind.

The next door he stopped at was on the right side. "This'll be the lass's quarters" he motioned towards Vela.

Vela nodded and walked over to the door, opening it quickly and slipping in. She closed the door behind her and took in what her room looked like.

It was a nice sized room, with a round bed taking up most of it. The bed had yellow covers on it and a red veil of silk went over it. Above the bed was chandelier, which was the main source of light for the room. There was desk in the corner with a fresh bottle of ink, quill, and stack of paper set on it. There was also a table beside the bed that had a mirror and tin of water on it, which Vela guessed was something mortal women used. And, much to Vela's delight, there was a small fireplace on the wall opposite of the bed with a small coffee table, sofa and two chairs set out in front of it.

She walked over to the coffee table and set down the luggage she had been carrying, smiling as the warmth of the fire hit her skin. She yawned, having not received a full nights rest, and made her way over to the bed.

She kicked off her boots, not bothering to take off her robe, and pulled the covers down. She slipped into the bed, which was surprisingly comfy, and gently rested her head onto the pillow. She made herself comfortable, pulling the covers up to her chin, and settled into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	18. Training is Torture

Vela awoke to three hard knocks on the door, causing her to groan. She held the pillow she was lying on closer to her, hoping that whoever it was would just give up and go away. All she wanted to do was sleep, and at that time she didn't really care who was at the door. And she would have continued sleeping to, if the persistent person outside of her room hadn't decided to repeatedly knock on the door for a minute strait.

She groaned and opened one amber eye, looking around a bit before the other one fluttered open. She felt like she had slept on a rock. She had been tossing and turning so much that she had gotten hardly any sleep at all, and she felt groggy and grimy.

She knew her hair was probably tangled and lying in some weird shape on her head, but she didn't bother to smooth it out as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. She groaned as her vision clouded and she began to feel dizzy and wobbly, an effect of laying on her back for hours.

She blinked her eyes a few times as her vision returned, and walked over to the door, fumbling over her shoes as she did so. She wrapped one lazy hand around the doorknob and turned it, the door swinging on its hinges and banging in to the wall.

Before Vela stood a small, even for dwarf standards, dwarf woman, with a small tray of food in one hand and a far to perky smile on her face. She had white hair, just as all the other dwarves in Dun Argol did, and stone like black skin.

"Good evenin', miss!" she said as she saw Vela. "I've brought ye some refreshments from the kitchin', they said you'd be a hungry,"

The dwarf rushed pat Vela, not even giving her a second glance, and walked through the room as of it were her own place towards the coffee table. She moved remarkable fast for someone of her height, and she plopped the tray of food onto the table and folded her arms and turned to Vela with a smiled on her face.

Vela, of course, did not return the smile. She had just been awoken from her slumber by a peppy dwarf who had wandered into her room without asking, forcing her too come up with snide remarks when her brain was only half awake. So, in total, Vela was not happy. Food or not, she did not like the dwarf, and she wanted her out. She wanted privacy, so she could get some sleep without being bothered by others.

She looked at the dwarf, not even bothering to hide her scowl, and said "Thank you." as blandly as she could. "Now go, I need some privacy."

Had it been any other time of day, Vela would have been nicer. But this dwarf had just woken her up and barged into her room, so she wasn't above being snappy and rude.

The dwarf dipped her head and said "Of course, Gor'tael. Whatever you wish."

Vela froze in place as she heard that word. She was certain she had heard it before, one hundred percent certain. It was that strange language again, the one that made her shiver when she heard it.

She snapped her attention to the dwarf, suddenly interested. Vela aught the dwarf by the arm as she walked by her, and the maid looked up at her with curiosity.

"Yes, miss?" she asked "Do you need something else?"

"That word you said, Gor'tael, what does it mean?" asked Vela "Tell me."

The dwarf let out a shriek and Vela realized she wasn't even paying attention to her. She was looking down at Vela's finger nails with surprise and possibly horror in her eyes. She lifted up one of Vela's hands, which as covered in little marks and callouses, and began looking over it, running her fingers over her nails.

"How on earth did yah happen to get yer finger nails so long?" asked the dwarf "Must be an inch long for each of em'. You must get em' cut miss! They're horrid!"

Vela rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, they're long. But-"

"And these scars!" said the woman, who was pointing out the scars that were on Vela's palms. "What did yah do, rake yer hand through a thorn bush?"

Vela sighed. "I don't-"

"Nonsense," said the woman "I'll go and get yah a set up for an appointment at the salon. Yah must get yer hands fixed up if ye want to get some gentlemen callers,"

The dwarf turned and hustled out of the room, muttering something about taking care of yourself under her breath as she went. Vela sighed, she never would be able to understand that language.

She turned towards the coffee table and walked over to it, seating herself in one f the armchairs. She sunk back into its plush fabric, wanting to close her eyes and go to sleep. But she couldn't, that dwarf had woken her up for good and there was no way she was going to be able to fall asleep again. She sighed, and looked at the tray of food i front of her. There was some bread and some cheese, but she as paying attention to the meat. There was a nice little pile of jerky on the tray, and she licked her lips hungrily as she saw it.

She shot up from her seat and grabbed the tray, placing it in her lap. She began to devour the meat in front of her, forgetting all about the proper etiquette she had been taught so long. She was starving, and the jerky was fresh, warm, fatty meat just waiting to be eaten. The jerky soup she had the night before had not filled her up very much.

She gobbled it down within a matter of seconds, leaving only a small crumbs to tell you that it ever existed at all. She smiled and licked her lips clean, laying back in her chair and letting the still going fire warm her. She still did not like the dwarf maid who had come in, but she was glad she had brought some food with her.

Now that she had eaten, and had gotten some much needed energy in her, she was in a better mood. She was still a little grouchy from not getting much sleep, but she wasn't as snappy as she had been.

She put her hands in front of her and studied them, looking at the little scars that were scattered along her hands. She had received them when she was in prison, ever so long ago. They didn't bother her now, but she had remembered learning of how mortal women tended to be a bit picky about those sorts of things, always wanting to be perfect and screaming if they got the tiniest nick in their skin.

And there were always her nails. They were long, a good two centimeters long for each nail. Vela, again, didn't really care, but she guessed that was another thing the mortal women fretted about. She also wasn't very clean, having not taken a bath in a good century or so. She had accumulated a good layer of grime, and a brush only did so much for your hair when your out in the wilderness twenty-four seven.

She sighed again, placing her hands on the wooden arms of the chair. She would have to do something about her hygiene problems if she wanted to continue pulling off the act of a mortal. She was fine with taking a bath, she actually wanted to, but she wasn't very excited for having her nails clipped. It did not sound fun at all.

She looked at the fire, watching the flames as they crackled and burned, eating away at the wood. She would have to put another piece of wood on soon if she wanted to keep the fire going, which she did.

As Vela was staring at the fire the door swung open, and she didn't have to turn her head to tell that it was Kyragosa, she could practically smell the magic on her.

"Ever heard of knocking?" asked Vela "It's what you do when you want to go into someones room. You know, for _privacy."_

"Nonsense," said Kyragosa, seating herself in the chair across from Vela "We have things to discuss, and I'm not going to wait for your lazy butt to get up and open the door."

Vela sighed and sat up straighter. "All right, what is it now? What's so important that you have to keep me from resting?"

Kyragosa rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, I know. You want to spend the whole day being lazy and resting. Nothing new." she said "Not why I'm here. We have something very important to talk about, you know, about what happened yesterday,"

"It's been a day?" asked Vela "Wow, it doesn't feel like it. You'd think I would have felt more rested after sleeping for an entire day."

"Yes, yes," said Kyragosa impatiently, waving her hand for her to continue. "Now, can I please say something?"

Vela nodded. "Talk away," she said.

Kyragosa nodded. "Yes, now I'm here about what happened yesterday," she said.

Vela raises an eyebrow and thought for a few moments. "What happened yesterday?" she asked.

Kyragosa rolled her eyes. "When you fell on the ground and started to have a seizure?" she asked.

"Oh, right," said Vela, feeling a little dumb that she had forgotten all about what had happened. "I guess I owe you an explanation about what exactly happened,"

Kyragosa nodded in response.

"All right then," Vela said "Well, I guess it all started when the landslide hit. After Miri and I escaped the landslide, I began to feel vibrations in the ground,"

"Vibrations?" asked Kyragosa.

Vela nodded. "Yes, vibrations. I could feel the vibrations in the ground when something disturbed the surface or the ground beneath me, if that makes any sense. I was able to feel my footsteps and Miri's,"

Kyragosa nodded, seeming to be partially lost in thought. "Yes, yes," she said "I think I understand. Go on."

"Well as time passes it grows stronger," Vela said "I can feel vibrations within a wider range and they're more clear. When I stepped onto the walkway up the mountain to the city, I could feel so many vibrations that I couldn't tell the difference between them and reality. My own movements got mixed up with them, and I was unable to move properly. It hurt like hell, and it gave me the worst migraine," Vela rubbed her head, remembering the pain she had been in. "I don't know how I would have managed if you hadn't stepped in and done whatever it is that you did."

Kyragosa nodded and sat back in her chair, her brow furrowed and her forehead creased in deep thought. Vela sat back as well, waiting for a response from Kyragosa. She was eager to hear if Kyragosa knew anything about what was happening to her, and if she had a cure.

After a few, long minutes which seemed to last forever, Kyragosa sat up and spoke. "I have never heard of this happening before," she said "But you might be telling the wrong person. It sounds like a black dragon problem to me, and it probably has to do with you being an aspect." she said.

"Don't say aspect," said Vela, sitting up. "I'm the same as I've always been, just with a little more power. I'm not an aspect."

"Very well," said Kyragosa "If you wish."

There was another long pause as Kyragosa continued thinking, and Vela sat back and waited.

The blue dragon abruptly stood, looking at Vela. "If I'm right about it being an aspect problem, and I have a feeling it is, then you are asking the wrong person." she said "The only person who could tell you about this is dead, and if this is a dragon problem all the black dragons are dead too, so there's not much we can do."

Vela sighed, her head collapsing into her hands. "So, what you're saying is that the only person who could possibly tell me what's going on is Deathwing?"

Kyragosa nodded. "Neltharion, if this is indeed an aspect problem, would be the only one to know. And we both know very well that asking him is out of the question."

Vela sighed again. "The one time I wish the bastard wasn't dead," she muttered.

Kyragosa either hadn't heard the comment, or chose to ignore it. "I will probably visit the library, if there is one in this city, later on to see if there's a slim chance there's something there that can help you." she said "Until then, we will need to begin training. You have grown weak, which is not good with all the power in you. I will need to teach you some fighting as well, you can't rely on magic all the time."

"Wait, what?" asked Vela, sitting up and looking up at Kyragosa with an expression similar to alarm. "What's this about fighting? What do you want me to do?"

Kyragosa sighed in annoyance. "Honestly, you must learn to listen better little whelp." she said "First of all, you need to exercise. I am not letting you lie around here all day lounging around and being lazy. Second, you need to learn another way of fighting besides spell casting. Magic can not always help you, and that's coming from a blue dragon."

Vela groaned. "There's no way I'm getting out of this, is there?"

Kyragosa shook her head.

Vela sighed and pushed herself out of her chair. "All right then," she said, moving over to the door "Might as well get it over with. I should probably practice using my daggers any way, I'm getting a bit rusty."

Kyragosa snorted. "A bit?" she asked "With as lazy as you've been, I think it's more than a bit."

Vela sighed and shook her head, not having the energy to argue with the blue dragon so early in the morning. She stumbled over to the door, following Kyragosa as the blue wyrm led them outside the room and into the hallway, taking a let and walking towards the larger hallway in the direction of the training grounds.

They passed a few dwarves along the way, and a shiver went up Vela's spine when she heard the strange language the dwarves spoke. Just looking at their ice blue eyes made her uneasy, and she was almost certain there was something going on with them.

Soon they came to the large hallway they had gone through the day before, and Vela couldn't help but marvel at the size of it. It could fit Kyragosa and her in their dragon forms with plenty of room to spare.

They walked down the hallway fairly quickly, headed towards the elevator of course. Vela was not looking forward to riding the machinery, but she was well aware that her fear of the elevator breaking and then falling to their deaths would not stop Kyragosa.

The doors to the elevator slowly opened, and two dwarfs walked out. They eyed Kyragosa and Vela suspiciously, but were soon out of sight as Vela and Kyragosa stepped onto the wobbly elevator and made their way up through the city, to the training grounds.

Vela was nervous the entire time they were in the little box, climbing up and up as the slab of rock they stood on wobbled back and forth from their weight, and she was glad when the stone doors parted to reveal the top floor. She quickly stepped out of the elevator, glad to be out of the thing she knew was a death trap waiting to spring.

She looked around and realized that she was on the top of some tower like structure, which looked out over the rest of the city. Vela walked over to the railing and looked over, nearly loosing her lunch as she realized how far up they were. They must have been at least half a mile up from the rest of the city, and almost a mile up the mountain.

She stepped back quickly, not wanting to fall over.

As she stepped back she noticed something odd. There seemed to be a dome or magic surrounding the tower, and outside the dome a nasty blizzard raged on, making the sky invisible from the flurries of snow that fell. The storm looked awful, but none of it reached the circular tower.

Vela turned to Kyragosa, an eyebrow raised. "What's that?" she asked, pointing at the dome of magic surrounding the tower.

Kyragosa looked up and studied the sky. "It looks to be a force field," she said "Probably to keep the storm out. It's a bit odd though,"

"Why?" asked Vela.

"Force fields usually have a purple or pink aura to them. That one is transparent." she said "I have never seen anything like it, in fact, I don't know if it should be possible."

"Well that's weird," said Vela.

"Very," said Kyragosa "Now, let's get to work." she clapped her hands together emphasize as she spoke "Where would you like to start? Swords? Archery? Daggers?"

Vela thought for a few moments. "I guess I'll start with the daggers. I'd like to see if my skills have kept up over the past few centuries."

Kyragosa nodded. "Very well. Go grab some daggers from that rack over there." Kyragosa pointed to a row of weapon racks near the elevator, and Vela jogged over to them.

There were many different sets of daggers, throwing knives, stabbing knives, knives for slicing, knives for skinning, almost any type of dagger you wanted was there. Vela looked over the weapons, running her fingers over the blades every once in a while, before picking out a nasty set of throwing daggers. She had always been better at throwing daggers, her lithe body and natural flexibility helped with maneuvering the daggers. She had never been one for stabbing knives, it just wasn't her area of expertise, and she never bothered with learning skinning.

Satisfied with her chose, Vela turned and walked over to where Kyragosa still stood, a dagger in each hand.

"All right," she said as she reached the blue dragon "I've got my daggers. Now what?"

Kyragosa looked her up and down and frowned. "You're going to throw daggers in a robe?" she asked, making Vela feel like a new rogue apprentice who knew nothing about being a rogue. One of the first rules of being a rogue was that you never, ever wore a robe when you threw daggers. A robe made maneuvering harder, so it was a big no in the world of throwing knives.

Kyragosa shook her head. "Well, no changing it now," she said. "Throw the daggers at that target over there,"

Vela nodded, taking her typical throwing stance as she aimed her dagger towards the target against the railing of the tower. She held up her dagger so that it was level with her head, staring at the red dot which was her target, and prepared to throw.

With a quick flick of the wrist, her dagger went flying through the air, heading towards the target. Before it even reached the target Vela knew it would miss. When she had thrown the dagger she had twisted her wrist slightly, a rookie mistake. Just as she had expected, the point of the dagger hit a few inches outside of the red dot, and she sighed.

She looked to Kyragosa and saw that the blue dragon was staring at the dagger. She continued doing that for a few more moments, her face expressionless, before she turned her head to look at Vela. She did that for a few moments longer, making Vela wonder if she had done a lot worse than she had thought.

"Your stance is off, you don't take enough time to aim, you put too much force into your throws, and you need to raise your arm higher." she finally said, shocking Vela slightly "But, all in all, your throw was not half bad. If you were a rookie."

Vela felt small as Kyragosa went on. She could tell that this was going to be a very, very long day.

"Now," Kyragosa said "Try again."

* * *

Vela dropped her sword on the ground after her fifth attempt at beating Kyragosa. She fell to her knees, sweat covering her forehead as she gasped for breath. The blue dragon had beat her once again, which was no surprise to Vela. So far she had bested her at everything, from dagger throwing to magic wielding and now at sword fighting. She had never seen someone fight so well in her life, and she had not expected the older dragon to be so good at fighting. She had always been rather peaceful, despite the times she used her staff as a club to hit Vela.

Kyragosa had beat her at everything. In fact, she had done more than beat Vela, she had completely bested Vela, ultimately defeating her at everything by a mile. She hadn't even broken a sweat, and Vela was lying on the ground gasping for breath wearing a ripped and sweat soaked robe, with her weapon lying on the ground a few feet away from her.

The blue dragon stood over her now, looking down at her with a slightly disappointed expression. She shadowed Vela, and she seemed to be making sure Vela knew just how much she had failed. Because, she had utterly failed. Kyragosa had _destroyed _her, a dragon tens of thousands of years older than her had utterly destroyed her, and she had barely put any effort into Vela's defeat.

"Up now," said Kyragosa "We have one more thing to practice before the days over."

Vela looked up, weakly brushing a strand of sweat soaked black hair out of her face, and sighed, standing up. Her legs felt weak beneath her, and she wanted to crumble and fall back down to the ground, but she forced herself to stay standing. That was the least she could do after having her dignity practically smashed by a dragon over ten times her older than her.

"What's next?" asked Vela, her voice softer from her vigorous workout.

"Archery," said Kyragosa "And stop slouching, it's bad for the spine."

Vela scowled at the dragon but did as she said, standing up straighter so that she was face to face with Kyragosa. She wasn't looking forward to archery, she had always been told that she was awful at it as a drake, but she just wanted to get it over with so she could go back and take a hot steaming bath like the dwarf maid from earlier had suggested.

Kyragosa motioned for Vela to follow as she turned and walked over to the weapon rack across the room, and Vela stumbled after her. She had regained her breath, but she was still pretty weak after all the fighting she had done, and she still had the urge to fall face first onto the ground and just lie there until morning.

As they reached the weapon, Kyragosa picked up a large wooden bow and three arrows, looking them over a few times before holding them out to Vela, who quickly took them. Vela looked at the bow for a second, studying it as well, before looking back at Kyragosa and waiting for her orders.

"Shoot it at the target," said Kyragosa, pointing to the target they had used before for throwing daggers. The paper was now littered with little holes from where the knife had sunk into it, but it was still usable.

Vela swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, walking over so that she was only twenty-five feet away at the least. She had never learned much about archery, but she had seen others shoot a bow and she had tried it out a few times. She only knew enough to shoot though, her aim was horrible. She couldn't shoot for her life.

She put two of the arrows of the ground, putting the other one on the notch of the bow.

"Spread your legs," yelled Kyragosa, which Vela did. "Stand parallel to the target."

Vela did so. She held up her bow, making sure the arrow was sitting straight on the bow.

"Pull back as far as you can," said Kyragosa.

Vela pulled her right arm back as far as she could, pulling the arrow back with it, and aimed it as best she could at the red circle on the target, which seemed ever so far away now. She took a deep breath, hoping that fate would smile upon her once in her life, and released.

The small wooden arrow ripped through the wind, going faster than Vela could have imagined. It hit the target with a thud, going right through it so only the feathered tip of it was seen. Vela was surprised at her accuracy, it had hit the red circle, She was only an inch or two off from hitting it right in the middle. She knew Kyragosa would have something bad to say, but she couldn't help but smile. It was the best she had done all day, even better than how she had done with her daggers.

Her arm fell to her side, her bow in her hand, as Kyragosa walked up to her. The blue dragon stopped to stand next to her, looking at where the arrow was sitting, piercing the target.

"You need to hold your arm higher; you were a bit to forceful, you don't need the arrow to rip throw your enemy, but all in all, not bad, little whelp." she said, surprising Vela "Your aim was very good for someone who is not a professional, all though you should be more patient and take your time to aim. All in all, I think this is the best you've done all day." she patted Vela on the back a few times as she began to walk over to the elevator "Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to training tomorrow. Try to give it your all next time, I want a challenge."

And with that the blue dragon disappeared into the elevator, leaving Vela shocked and wordless.

"Tomorrow?" was all she was able to say as she stared at the space where the dragon had once been.

* * *

Vela smiled as she walked into the steaming hot room. She had just put her stuff away and she was now in the bathing room, preparing to take a nice relaxing bath, hopefully free of any interruptions.

She was in a little room with a huge tub imbedded in the floor, full of water so hot steam was rolling off of it, making it look to hot for mortal flesh to touch. Of course, Vela was no mortal. She was a cold-blooded lizard, and she loved the heat. This was the best she could get with the mortals besides lighting a fire, all though she preferred being near lava and volcanoes, where the warm spots were.

But this would do, after all, she was in desperate need of a bath. She had a nice thick layer of grime covering her body, and her nails were far too long to pass herself off as a mortal. A dwarf was supposed to come in and have them cut before she took a bath, but there was no one there, and she wasn't going to wait for them when there was a nice warm pool of water sitting right in front of her.

She put her long black hair in a quick bun, not wanting to get it wet, and began to strip out of her robe. She hopped into the pool of water quickly, and was quickly covered in white soap bubbles. She purred as the hot water enveloped her, feeling the dirt and grime that had covered her slowly coming off and going into the water.

She rested her head on the edge of the tub and sunk down even deeper into the water, so that it brushed the tips of her hair. She smiled and closed her eyes, letting the warmth enter her body, soothing her sore muscles.

Saying that she needed this would be an understatement. The past week or so had been hectic, from escaping her prison, to traveling with Daena, then becoming the aspect and traveling with Kyragosa and Miri, and then arriving in this city with the strange dwarves that made shivers run up her spine. It had all happened so fast that sometimes she wondered if it had happened at all, and if this was all just one elaborate dream, just waiting for her to wake up in her prison cell and ruin the fantasy. But then she would remind herself that this was no dream, and that it was actually happening, despite how much it seemed like a dream.

For one, she still couldn't believe that she was the aspect. It just seemed so unreal, so impossible. She had been told by the other black dragons when she had been their prisoner that this was what was happening, but she had never fully believed them. She had always thought that they were wrong, and that she was just special or something. But here she was, the aspect of earth, fighting everyday to escape the barren land that seemed to be a prison for her, one that she would never escape.

She didn't want to be the aspect either. She wanted to be a normal dragon, well, as normal as you could be being the only member of the black dragonflight left on the planet with everyone trying to hunt you down and kill you.

But she couldn't have that anymore. Now she was the aspect of earth, or at least she had the power of the black aspect. Now she had a whole new problem to face, despite how much she wanted to forget about it and pretend that it didn't exist.

Because she couldn't pretend. It was always there, the power, always reminding her of its existence. It was there every second of the day, always telling her that it was there, waiting to be used. It seemed to be taunting her, teasing her about the curse she was now facing. She would have to deal with this for the rest of her life, and she would never forget about it. It would always be with her. Always existing. Never leaving.

She sighed, and shook the thoughts from her mind, trying to focus on other things.

It was then that she heard it. It sounded like screaming. She couldn't be sure, but it sounded like someone being... tortured. It was a mortal scream, one that she could barely hear through the walls, but she was certain that it was screaming.

It sounded like someone was dying, and she had the urge to cup her ears with her hands so she wouldn't have to hear the awful sounds. Then she heard the sound of a whip crackling through the air, and another scream. It was far away, the sound being muffled by the thick walls. There was another crackle of a whip, but this time there was no scream. All was silent.

She was about to get up go see what it was, but then the door to her room swung open, and in walked a dwarf maid with a pair of clippers in her hand.

"In for a clippin' dear?" she asked as she sat down next to the tub and motioned for Vela to give her a hand.

Vela could only nod as she slowly took her soap covered hand out of the water and gave it to the woman. the dwarf looked it over and began clipping, but Vela wasn't watching.

All she could think about was the screaming and the whip, and the silence that followed. She knew what she had heard, and she knew very well what the silence meant. Something had happened beyond those walls, something bloody.

All she could do was stare at the wall, wondering what had gone on behind it. Was a dwarf the victim of the whip? Or was a dwarf, the torturer?

* * *

_Ah, finally done with the chapter. Sorry it's a little late, I'll try to keep the updates weekly from now on. My usual beta is on vacation, so I had to edit this myself, and I'm not good at editing. At all. Hopefully I didn't have too many errors, I tried to comb through it and find them all, but like I said, I suck at editing. Probably because I'm too lazy for my own good. _

_Anyways, hope you liked the chapter! Reviews are greatly appreciated._


	19. Libraries and Gor'tael

**Dear Readers: Now, I could give you an over extended explanation for the lateness of this chapter, OR, I could give you what you really want, which is chapter 19.**

Vela strode down one of the many hallways in the city of Dun Argol, wondering where the library was. It had been a day since she began her training, and she was now looking for Kyragosa so she could begin her fighting lesson for the day. The blue dragon said she would be in the library, but Vela hadn't thought to ask where the library was before the old dragon was out the door and headed down the hall.

So here she was, wandering through the stone city of Dun Argol, a good two miles underground, trying to figure out where the library was. When she had started walking she had tried to keep track of the turns she made, but there were so many that she had stopped keeping track, and was now more focused on finding her way back to her room than finding the library.

She made another turn and sighed as she walked down yet another hallway with doors lining the walls, leading who knows where. She had been looking for the supposed library for a good thirty minutes if not more, and she was beginning to wonder of it even existed.

She realized that she probably should have turned around and went back to her room after going down the fifteenth hallway, but it was too late to go back now, she was already too lost in the labyrinth of a city. She silently cursed herself for not turning around before it was too late and continued walking, trying to find the library or her room which ever came first.

She passed a few dwarves every once in a while and had debated asking them for directions, but then they gave her the creepy feeling and her instincts told her to stay away and try to find her way around on her own. The place couldn't be too big after all.

She rounded another corner and began walking down another hallway and saw even more hallways lining it. She considered resorting to magic to find her way around, but she still wasn't sure if she should. The dwarves could sense it, and then she could get in big trouble. But then again, she might have to walk around the entire city all day and night before she found the library or perhaps even longer.

She sighed as she went down another hallway, lined with other hallways leading to other places that she didn't know of. The chances that she would find her way around the city without using magic were slim and she began to look through the different tracking spells she had learned in her mind.

If she did this she would have to use either shadow magic or arcane magic. Arcane magic was easily seen, so she preferred to use shadow magic. It would take longer but she was a lot less likely to get caught.

She picked out a spell from her memory and recited the words a few times in her head before she was satisfied that she would remember them, and began to draw the shadow magic out of the world around her using her own energy. She held up her hands and began to twirl them around in circles as she drew the energy out from her surroundings, and a little stream or black mist began to swirl around her hands. It took her a while to collect all of the magic she would need, but she eventually had enough.

She began to whisper the words of the spell softly, making sure no one lurking in the shadows would be able to hear her. She closed her eyes as she concentrated, her for head wrinkled as she spoke the ancient words of the spell.

She finished, and when she opened her eyes her vision was wavy, and everything was in a shade of black or gray. In front of her was a trail of mist winding through the hallways that only she could see that was leading to the library. She stepped forward and staggered, her legs weakened from the effects of the spell. Everything wavered around her as she walked, and she had to walk slow so she didn't stumble and fall.

The path of mist led her through many hallways, making many twists and turns through the city. She passed only two or three dwarves luckily, and they all seemed too wrapped up in their own business to care about how slow she was walking or noticed how much she was stumbling down the halls.

The mist twisted down one very large hallway, and at the end of it Vela saw two large doors standing high above her, opened slightly to let guests in. The mist led into the room, and she assumed it was the library. Pillars lined the walls beside her, keeping the high ceilings up, and a few droplets of water fell down from the ceiling, making a soft patter as they met the cold stone floors.

As she reached the doors she canceled the spell, and stumbled slightly as her normal vision returned. She blinked a few times as color returned to the world, and hoped that no one had sensed the spell. She opened the rather heavy door slightly and slipped in.

She was greeted by the bright candlelight of a chandelier hanging hundreds of feet above her head, illuminating the rows and rows of books that lay beneath it. Vela strained her eyes and found that she could not see the end of the tall bookshelves, which were each at least fifteen feet tall. She looked to her left and saw a spiral stairway leading up to some unknown floor, and to her right was a dwarf lady sitting at a desk, a quill in one hand as she wrote in the book resting in her other hand. She seemed old and frail, and she wore tiny spectacles connected to a chain that wrapped around her neck.

She looked up as Vela walked forward and frowned, looking her over once before narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"What do ya want?" she asked, her tone grouchy and snappy. Her voice was rough, and sounded like two boulders being rubbed together.

Vela cleared her throat and said "I'm looking for a friend, she said she was visiting the library." she looked around, hoping to see Kyragosa "Do you know where she is? She's a high elf, about my height, black hair-"

"I haven't seen a high elf in ah good thirty some years!" said the woman, laughing the words out.

Vela frowned, not liking the woman at all. "Are you sure?" she asked, trying to stay polite. "She said she would be here-"

"There's no elves in this here city!" said the woman, interrupting her again. "Go look some where else girl."

Vela sighed. "Can I go look for her in the library then? I'm sure she's-"

The dwarf slammed her book onto the table, the sound echoing through the library. "No humans in the library!" she hissed out, her teeth clenched.

"Oh, come on!" exclaimed Vela. "What am I going to do? Bend the corners of your precious books? I'm just looking for someone!"

"No. Humans. In. The. Library!" hissed the dwarf again.

Vela crossed her arms across her chest. "You've got to be kidding me!" she said "What harm can I possibly do?"

"I don't kid," said the woman. "And ya can do a lot of harm! Dwarves only in this library! Now git out!"

Vela took a step forward, placing her feet firmly on the ground. "No," she said "I'm not leaving until I get my friend."

"For the last time girl, there were no elves comin in this library, and there never will!" said the woman. "Now git out! Before I call the guard in ye!"

"I'm a guest here!" exclaimed Vela. "I should at least be able to come in here and get my friend! And there is no possible harm that I can cause you, or your library, nor do I want to cause any harm. So can I please, please just go and get my friend and leave?"

"No!" said the woman, smashing her fist on the desk for emphasize. "In the name of Loken, I will not have any humans or elves in this here library! Now, git out!"

Vela growled deep in her throat, a habit she had developed as a drake when she was irritated. She did not like this woman, and she would not leave the room before she had Kyragosa with her, and she was not giving into this woman.

Vela narrowed her eyes as her amber pupils locked onto the blue ones of the dwarf woman, and they began to stare at each other, Vela growling and the woman looking as if she wanted to leap across the table and strangle Vela. Tension rose between the two, and Vela wondered if she might have to resort to a fight. She didn't want to, she was a guest here after all, but she would defend herself to the death if she had to, no matter what the consequences might be.

Just as she thought the dwarf would leap across the table, she heard a familiar humming and clacking on the floor as someone walked towards them. Both she and the dwarf woman turned to see another dwarf woman, taller than most dwarves Vela had seen, walking towards them with a few books in her arms. The dwarf looked the same as all the other women there Vela had seen, but there was something familiar about her.

The woman dropped her books on the desk and said, "I'll take these with me today, Tilidre." Vela relaxed as she recognized the voice as Kyragosa's, and she cursed herself for not being smart enough to shift into the form of a dwarf.

The dwarf at the desk smiled, seeming to have forgotten all about Vela, and said in a soft voice, "Why of course, Keiry. Anything for you, my dear."

The dwarf at the desk picked up each book and read its spine, scribbling something down in her book as she did so and then moving onto to the next book. Once she was done there was a nice stack of books next to her and Kyragosa piled them into her arms once again.

"Thank you, Tilidre." said Kyragosa.

Tilidre smiled. "Of course, deary." she said "Come back anytime!"

Kyragosa turned around and her eyes widened as she saw Vela. "Oh, Vela!" she said "I was wondering when you'd show up. Come now, it's time for training. Carry these books, would you dear?"

Before she could answer a pound or so of books were placed in Vela's arms and Kyragosa was walking ahead of her, heading out the door to who knows where. Vela followed, but turned back as she reached the door and glared at the dwarf at the desk before leaving.

She went out into the much dimmer hallway and blinked a few times as her vision adjusted to the small amount of light. Kyragosa, still in her iron dwarf form, was standing a few paces in front of her, smiling. She looked like she really wanted to say something, and she seemed to be waiting for Vela to say something first.

"So," Vela began. "What did you find in the library?"

"Many good things," said Kyragosa, starting her walk down the hall. "Thank you for asking."

Vela began to walk after her, wondering just what she had found. She looked down at the books in her hands and saw the title: The Beginners Guide to Apprentice Necromancy - Volume 1. She frowned as she saw the word necromancy, wondering just what it was the blue dragon had in mind.

"What sort of things?" Vela asked, still staring down at the book in her hands.

Kyragosa shrugged, not bothering to look back as she spoke. "Oh, just some things for ideas I was thinking of." she said "I will tell you once I do the research, I want to see if this is possible first."

Vela raised an eyebrow, quickening her pace so that she was walking alongside Kyragosa. "See if what is possible?" she asked.

Kyragosa smiled. "I will tell you later, little whelp." she said "But first, we must begin training." The blue dragon glanced towards her, looking her up and down as they walked. "Your clothes will do. At least you're not wearing that awful robe. That reminds me, I must teach you more about shape shifting, it is a valuable skill, especially for dragons."

Vela nodded. "All right." she said "So are we going to drop these off at your room first?"

Kyragosa smiled and shook her head. "Silly little whelp. Why waste the magic we have? Besides, we don't have time to walk all the way around Dun Argol to get to my room." she motioned for Vela to give her the books and Vela obliged.

Once they were in her arms, Kyragosa closed her eyes and began to whisper something in such a low voice Vela couldn't hear much of it. After a few moments the books began to glow with a blue aura, and they slowly began to fade. Vela's eyes widened as she watched the books disappear before her eyes, vanishing in mid air. Once after one the books vanished, and Vela noticed Kyragosa's chant coming to an end.

A few seconds later Kyragosa's eyes popped open and she looked around, smiling when she looked at the place where the books had been.

"What happened?" asked Vela, still confused.

Kyragosa looked at her and said "Magic. The books are invisible now, and in a second they will..."

She paused and began to chant a few words, then looked up again "...Be headed to my room." she said "A simple spell, once you have the control to do it. I will teach you some day, once you can use your magic more easily."

Vela could only nod and continue walking as they made their way towards the training grounds. She didn't know how Kyragosa had done that, but she was sure she would learn soon enough. She would just have to be patient, and hope that either she got better at fighting or Kyragosa wen easier on her. And she guessed it would not be the second one.

They made their way through hallway after hallway, making twists and turns here and there as they made their way through the city. It was taking them a while, and Vela started to wonder if Kyragosa was lost like she had been, but then they went past her room and soon came into the large hallway and she relaxed.

They made their way over to the elevator that Vela was sure was a death trap and stepped onto the thin, slab of rock imbedded in the wall. She immediately felt nervous, and the elevator wobbling beneath her did not help but she forced herself to swallow her fear and watched as Kyragosa, still in the form of an iron dwarf, began to turn the crank, causing the elevator to jerk back and forth for a moment and then slowly move upwards.

Vela watched the blue dragon in disguise the entire time, just waiting for a cord to snap or the rock to break and for them to fall to their deaths. But thankfully, this didn't happen, and before she knew it the the doors to the elevator were sliding open and she was leaping out of the elevator as if her life depended on it, and it very well could have.

She glanced back and watched as the iron dwarf Kyragosa casually stepped out, humming some tune Vela didn't know of to herself. As she walked her hands began to glow a bright blue and Vela watched as she slowly shifted from being an iron dwarf to being the high elf she usually was.

She stopped, standing a few feet away from Vela and asked. "Shall we begin?"

Vela nodded. "Very well," she said "What shall we practice first? Daggers?"

Kyragosa shook her head. "No," she said "Today we will begin with archery. I want to see how you do after that little trial we had yesterday."

"Little trial?" asked Vela "My sore muscles say it was more than a 'little' trial."

"If you are sore from that then that just means you are more out of shape than I originally thought." said Kyragosa "Now, shall we begin?"

Vela nodded and Kyragosa smiled. "Very good." she said "Your bow is over on the rack. Go get it, then I will see how good your posture is."

Vela nodded and turned around, running over towards the weapon rack. She spotted the bow and snatched it up, grabbing three arrows as well. She looked the bow over and, satisfied that it would serve her needs, tuned back to where Kyragosa waited for her and jogged towards her.

Kyragosa looked her over and seeming pleased, looked towards the target and said "Shoot away, little whelp. I need to see how good your posture is."

Vela nodded, and Kyragosa stepped back to stand behind her, watching patiently. Vela took a few steps forward and aligned herself with the target, her bow in her left hand and her arrows in the other. She placed two arrows on the ground and held up her bow, placing the arrow on the grip and pulling it back as she aimed the tip of the arrow at the target, pulling the string of the bow as far back as her arm would allow. She looked at the target for few long moments and then released, stepping back as the arrow ripped through the air, watching as the arrow hit a few inches away from the middle, landing in the red rim that surrounded the yellow circle in the middle of the target.

Vela looked to Kyragosa, wondering what the blue dragon had to say.

"Very good, little whelp," she said "Much better posture. Accuracy comes with practice, though. You'll get better as time goes by."

Vela nodded. "Shall I shoot the other two?" she asked, picking up one of the arrows that lay on the ground.

Kyragosa nodded. "Go ahead."

* * *

Vela had just completed her training for the day and she felt utterly drained. Kyragosa hadn't worked her quite as hard as the day before, but she was definitely tired. They had practiced sword fighting, dagger work, and archery, leaving Vela soaked in sweat and Kyragosa commenting on her improvement.

Vela honestly didn't feel like she had done any better than yesterday, but when she said this to Kyragosa, the blue dragon merely said she would improve with time, and that before she knew it she would be hitting the bulls eye every time.

Vela was skeptical, but she had only nodded and left, headed towards her room. After all the training she had done, all she wanted to do was go back and collapse onto her bed. Kyragosa told her that it was almost time for dinner, but she didn't care. She'd rather miss dinner, it was only one meal after all.

She didn't know where Kyragosa had gone, probably to the library or to her room and she was not in the mood for speaking with Miri, so it seemed she would have the rest of the day to herself. She knew she would probably sleep through it, given that she was wobbling on her feet as she walked through the large halls, but at least she would have it to herself and wouldn't be bothered by any dwarves.

She reached her room and grasped the knob and twisted it, opening it and causing the door to creak as it swung open on its hinges. She walked into her room and was surprised to see a fresh bed made for her, fresh candles in the place of the old ones and a fire burning in the fireplace. The air smelled musty and stale, probably from the door being closed the whole day and no fresh air coming in and Vela waved a hand in front of her nose, trying to get rid of the scent.

She walked over to the coffee table and sat down in one of the arm chairs, sinking back into the soft fabric. She smiled as she lay back, glad to get a little rest.

She made herself comfortable and stared out at the fire, listening as it crackled and hissed in its place, hungrily eating away at the wood. Watching it gave Vela pleasure, not only because she was a dragon but because she was a black dragon. She had grown up surrounded by lava and earth, the fire and warmth with it. The hot flames reminded her of home, and her life before, no matter how awful it seemed to her now. Yes, her home growing up was not the best, but it was home nonetheless.

Just as she was settling down ready to take a nap, there was a loud knock on the door. She sighed, wondering who it could be and swung her legs over the edge of the chair, ruining her ever so comfy spot.

Before she could reach the door it swung open, and a dwarf maid stood in the doorway. Vela recognized her as the dwarf maid from the other day, the one who had rudely awoken her and had pointed out her long finger nails. The woman carried a tray of biscuits and a liquid that smelled like beer, and she she rushed over to the coffee table, giving Vela a warm smile as she passed.

"Here's yah snack for the day miss." she said, "I hope ye like beer, because, we don't have whiskey. They drank it all last night."

Vela chuckled, and made her way over to the coffee table. As she passed the dwarf she felt a jerking on her hands and she looked down to see the dwarf looking over her nails carefully.

"Much better!" said the dwarf "Ye have the finest nails in all the land! The maids here really know how to clip ah nail! Your hands look better, too. Ye can't notice the scars that much."

Vela smiled. The dwarf meant well, despite the other day. She was a nice woman, and Vela was willing to look past her obliviousness.

"Thank you," she said "That woman really did know how to treat my hands!"

The maid was already heading out the door, and all she said before she disappeared from sight was "Of course, Gor'tael!"

Vela froze. It was that word again, the word the maiden had used the other day before. What was it again?

"Gor'tael," Vela whispered, her voice barely audible. She was sure she had heard that word somewhere before.

It was that language, that cursed language that gave Vela the chills every time she heard it. She knew there was something strange about it, something off. It gave her the chills, and she was sure she had heard it somewhere before, but it was as if a cloud of fog drifted over her memory when ever she heard a word of the mysterious language.

And that meant there was something very, very bad going on. Dragons, since they had such long lives, needed a very good memory. And if Vela couldn't remember, even when she tried her hardest, something was wrong. Something very wrong. And she was certain the dwarves had something to do with it.

* * *

**I know, I know. WHY DID THIS CHAPTER TAKE SO LONG TO COME?! School was part of it, but it's really my lazy-ass fault. My bad. And this chapter is rather short, but I wanted to give you all something to read after waiting for so long. Plus, nothing much happens in this chapter that's oh so important.  
**

**But, I'll at least leave you this. The next chapter is going to be chapter 20, (What?! 20 already?!) So I HAVE to make it extra awesome! And I will. And it will be ON TIME. **


	20. WHAT?

**_Dear Readers: Already chapter 20? No way.  
_**

**_Well, here's the chapter for you..._**

Vela was sitting in one of the cushioned chairs, tapping her fingers on the coffee table as she waited, patiently, for Kyragosa to come. Today was a big day. They were finally going to get her tremor sense problem fixed.

It had been four days, and each day Vela had trained and trained, getting daily updates on Kyragosa's research progression. Every day Kyragosa had told her of how close she was coming to a break through, and just the other day she had given Vela the great news, that she was finally done. Kyragosa was supposed to be there any moment, barging through the door with books stacked tall in her arms as she prepared to tell Vela how they were going to do this.

For the past week or so they had spent in the city, Vela's tremor sense had been cut off. Kyragosa tried to explain it to her, and she had basically said that the nerve connected Vela's brain to her tremor sense power was completely numbed by magic, magic that only Kyragosa could undo. It had been a nice break for Vela, but Kyragosa had warned her that numbing a sense can cause bad things to happen, so Vela had reluctantly agreed to get it undone.

So here she was, sitting in her chair, tapping her fingers on the coffee table as she waited for Kyragosa to come, whenever that would be.

She sat there for another ten minutes or so, her nails drumming against the oak wood of the coffee table, before a knock came on her door. She immediately stopped her drumming ad shot up and out of her seat, practically sprinting towards the door. When she got to it, she quickly yanked the door open, using a little more of her draconic strength than was necessary.

Vela was immediately disappointed. In front of her was a bitter looking night elf with a cloak thrown around her shoulders, a scowl written across her face.

Vela sighed. "Hello, Miri," she said "What brings you here? I wasn't expecting a visit from you,"

In fact, Vela hadn't been expecting to see her at all. The whole time they had been in the city Vela had only seen bits and pieces of Miri, a glance in the hall, a mint green ponytail disappearing around a corner. She hadn't spoken to her until now, and she had almost forgotten that Miri was even in the city.

Miri grunted. "I need to tell you something," she said "Something important. Are you going to move or do I have to push you aside?"

Vela quickly realized that her arm was barring the entrance to her room, and she quickly moved aside. Miri quickly walked in, making her way over to the coffee table. Vela sighed and closed the door, walking after Miri. They both sat down across from each other, Vela taking the seat closest to the smoldering fire. Vela watched Miri closely as the night elf made herself comfortable, waiting for an explanation as to why she was here. Kyragosa would be arriving soon, in fact she should have already been there, and she wanted this little 'experiment', or so Kyragosa had called it, to be in private.

After another few seconds of waiting, where the two had settled into awkwardly staring at each other, Vela finally spoke. "So are you going to tell me why you're here?" she asked.

"I'm trying to figure out a way to say it," said Miri. She chuckled. "I never thought I'd be coming to a black dragon for help."

Vela raised an eyebrow, suddenly intrigued. "Help?" she asked "Go on,"

"This is a rather awkward conversation," said Miri.

Vela smiled devilishly. "Oh Miri," she said in a bit too sweet voice. "Did you start your monthly's?"

"My what?" asked Miri, a look of utter confusion written across her face.

"You know," said Vela "That thing you mammal women get every month. Don't you bleed or something?"

Miri scowled. "Shut it, lizard," she hissed. "And no. I did not start my 'monthly's', or what ever word you cold-blooded dragons use of it. I actually came here for a _reason _you know,"

Vela smiled and stood, deciding it would be a great time to fix something to drink. She could tell Miri would be here for a while. "Go on," she said "I'm listening."

Miri sighed and sank back in her chair, a few seconds passing before she began to speak. "All right, I guess I know where to start." she said. she looked a little uncomfortable, but reluctantly went on. "Well, I've been hearing voices,"

Vela stopped in front of the table she had against the far wall where she kept the food and drinks and raised an eyebrow before going back to sorting through the drinks. "Oh she asked "Well, either the old gods have finally caught up to me or you're going insane," she smiled as she poured some water into one of the glasses. "I think we both know which one it is. I would advise going to a therapist."

"Not in my _head, _moron," exclaimed Miri "Voices outside of my room! Every single night, right before i go to bed, I hear whispering outside my door. It always sounds like something is being dragged along the carpet outside my door."

Vela frowned as she walked over to the coffee table, giving Miri a pint sized glass of beer and keeping a glass of water for herself. "That is... very odd," she said "Do you have any idea what it is? Have you seen anything in the hall?"

Miri shook her head. "Nothing but the whispers." she said, still shaking her head. "I know something's not right. I can _feel _that it's not right. When I feel that something's not right, it's not."

Vela nodded, still taking in all of the information. "I know, I know." she said "I know something's up too."

Miri sat up in her seat. "You do?" she asked "What do you mean?"

Vela sighed and sat back in her seat. "All right, I guess it all started with that weird language the dwarves speak." she said "Every time I hear it chills run up my back, and I feel like I should remember it from somewhere, but I just _can"t. _No matter how hard I try I can never remember where I've heard it before. It's like that entire part of my memory is surrounded by a wall, a wall that I can't penetrate."

She took a sip of her drink and went on. "And when I was getting my nails done-"

"What?" asked Miri.

"What?" Vela asked as she looked up.

"You... got your nails done? Why?" she asked.

Vela shook her head "Not the point." she said "Now anyway, I was getting my nails done. But while I was waiting I thought I heard... whip cracks, and someone screaming. Then there was a final whip crack... and the screaming stopped." vela shuddered, the thoughts unnerving her. "I don't know who or what it was, but I'm certain the iron dwarves had something to do with whatever happened that day. There's no chance they wouldn't know what was going on, especially when it's in the heart of their capital city."

Vela looked up to see Miri nodding slowly, deep in thought. The night elf looked rather worried for once, but it was hard to tell with the thick wrinkle of thought that laced her forehead. or a second, only a mere second, vela thought she saw fear in the depths of the night elves eyes. But she blinked, and it was gone, replaced by the scowl Miri always gave.

She abruptly stood, her mint green pony tail waving back and forth as she moved, and began pacing around the room. "I don't like this, I don't like this at all," she said. She turned and looked at Vela, rage in her eyes. "Do you know why we've stayed here for so long? Why we haven't left and been on are why like we should have?"

Vela thought for a moments and shook her head, not daring to speak and interrupt the night elf's rampage.

Miri snickered. "Figures," she said "We've been staying here because of some horrible 'blizzard' that's going on. I've seen blizzards that have lasted for days, but never this long. Never. Blizzards like that are rare upon the rarity's, even in Northrend. That type of storm wouldn't be here, not so close to Grizzly Hills." She began pacing again, going around and around, vela watching closely as she drank her water. "There is no way that storm could still be going on! They're keeping us here, I can see it. They get worried when I ask about the storm, and they flip out when I mention leaving."

The night elf stopped and looked at Vela, who was sipping some water and looking at the night elf with a calm expression, despite the worry she felt inside. "You're right," she said after a long silence. "It is weird. But we can do nothing for now but wait, and hope you aren't right. Because if you are, we'll have a whole new set of problems to deal with."

For a few seconds Miri just stood their, staring and thinking. Then she slowly nodded, as if she were reluctant to agree. "Yes, you're... right." she said. She turned towards the door, then glanced back at Vela. "I'll be leaving. I have to think about this."

She stomped towards the door and quickly opened it, slamming it shut behind her as she left.

Vela sighed. She did not want to believe what the night elf was saying but she did. All of the evidence pointed against the dwarves no matter how hard vela tried to think of a reason why they acted the way they did. But there was no way to reword it: The dwarves were up to something bad, something that would affect them all. And sooner or later they would all have to accept that, whether they wanted to or not. Eventually they would have to deal with it, and the only thing they could do was prolong the inevitable.

Vela emptied her glass and set it down on the table, sitting up in her chair as she waited for Kyragosa to come. The blue dragon should have arrived earlier in he morning long before Miri had dropped by, but it looked as if she had gotten caught up in something else.

It was another thirty minutes before the second knock came on her door, and Vela took her time in getting to the door. She would have been a lot more excited, but after her talk with Miri, she was too worried to jump up as soon as someone knocked on the door.

She grabbed the handle and pulled the door open with nowhere near as much enthusiasm as before. As the door creaked on its hinges she looked over the tall high elf figure of Kyragosa, who held a stack of books in her arms and a few loose pieces sticking out from between the books.

"May I come in?" asked Kyragosa.

Vela nodded and moved aside. "Of course,"

Kyragosa walked in and immediately made a beeline towards the coffee table, dropping the books on the table with a large thunk before collapsing into one of the chairs.

"Walking a mile through this city with fifteen pounds of books in our arms can tire a dragon out!" she said.

Vela smiled as she made her way over to the coffee table. "looks like I'm not the only one who's out of shape," she said as she plopped down into the other chair.

"Just you wait little whelp," said Kyragosa. "If you think the training I've given you now is hard, you will be blown away in a few weeks."

Vela frowned. She didn't think there was anything harder than the training Kyragosa gave her.

Kyragosa laughed. "Oh little whelp, take a joke!" she said "It's much, much worse than that."

Vela sighed. "So what have you found out? I there a cure for this?" she asked, the words nearly jumping out of her mouth.

Kyragosa shook her head. "There is no cure for a sense. Cures are for diseases, parasites. This ability is not an illness, it is apart of your magic and there for apart of you." she said "The best you can do is numb it or learn to control it, other wise you are forced to live with it forever and hope it's not that bad."

"I never really thought of it that way," said Vela.

"I didn't think you would," said Kyragosa "It takes many years to understand the difference between a sickness and a sense. They are both very different, but they seem to be very similar."

Vela nodded slowly. "But you have found something?" she asked "Some way to control it?"

Kyragosa smiled. "Not exactly," she said. Vela frowned. "This is where it gets a little 'confusing' so to say."

"Go on," Vela urged.

"All right then," said Kyragosa as she sat back in her seat "I was in the library trying o find any mention of this ability and of course I wasn't having much, if any, luck. This ability of yours is most likely a unique ability only black dragons have and there for only a black dragon could know about so I would need something written by a black dragon. And you and I both know that most dragons never write books, even the ones that spy on humans, which made it even harder!" Kyragosa waved her hands around for emphasis.

"And even if there was a single book among the millions of them in the world that just so happened to be written by a black dragon with even the tiniest bit of information on this subject, why would it be in a dwarven library?" she asked "So, even if there was a book, the chance that it would be in a dwarven library full of mortals who can't speak and definitely can't read draconic runes is next to impossible."

There was a long pause as vela trued to sort through everything the blue dragon had told her. "So... you didn't find anything?"

Kyragosa laughed, nonchalantly waving a hand in dismissal of her question "Of course I found something!" she said "It's just not what you're expecting."

The blue dragon finally stopped laughing, regaining her composure slightly. "So, knowing that I wouldn't be finding anything that actually talked about the subject, I began to think of other ideas as to how I can actually help you with this. As I was thinking and thinking I began to think of your magical training and how you're so good with the arts of necromancy,"

Vela briefly recalled the book Kyragosa had checked out, the one about necromancy. "And then it hit me, the answer was right there in front of me, on my pupil!"

"Wait, what?" asked Vela, suddenly sitting up. "Necromancy is very, very dangerous! I don't think we should be using that magic unless we have an expert with us!"

Kyragosa shook her head in mock disappointment. "Silly whelp, do you not know what my flight is in charge of?" Vela blushed and sat back in her chair. "Besides, you are very crafty with necromancy, which makes the odds that we will slip up very slim."

"But there are still odds," Vela pointed out. "And depending on what you plan to do with necromancy those odds could very easily turn against us,"

"Very good pints," said Kyragosa "but with magic there will always be odds, big or small. And you do want to get this problem fixed up, yes?"

There was a short pause. "Yes, I do," said Vela hesitantly. She didn't like how this was going so far.

"Then I guess we'll just have to take a chance!" she said.

"And what chance is it that we're taking?" asked Vela. She wanted to see what the blue dragon was getting at.

"It's actually quite simple really," she said "I want to summon Neltharion's spirit so he can tell you about your aspect acquired traits and how to deal with them."

Vela burst out of her seat, her eyes bulging out of her head. _"WHAT?!"_

**_And, it was shorter. Sorry! I know I said this chapter would longer, but it ended up being an escalation chapter rather than the super awesome chapter(s) that will come next. Good cliffhanger, I hope._**

**_If I was the reader, I think my reaction to the ending would be something along the lines of, "WHAT THE HELL?! Summon Neltharion's spirit?!"_**

**_This was supposed to be the super awesome chapter, but I can't give you all of the information on what's going to happen! Then it's not exciting. This way, it will be a way better experience._**

**_So I hope I left you asking, "What's going to happen!?" if not, I've failed._**

**_And thank you Connet for betaing this chapter!_**

**_Thank you Destrark for betaing the last chapter, which I forgot to mention the last time..._**

**_And, oh my god. So many reviews! Which is great, because I love reviews. But seriously, when I opened up my inbox, it looked like a bomb went off. _**


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